HANDY HELPS 



FOR 



BUSY WORKERS. 



By EDWIN W. RICE, D.D., 

Author of "Our Sixty-six Sacred Books" " Commentary on Matthew y 

Mark, Luke, John and the Acts," "Dictionary 

of the Bible," etc., etc. 



PHILADELPHIA 

KICE & HIRST, AGENTS, PUBLISHERS 

1122 Chestnut Street 



*$ 



29662 
A HINT. 

How shall the new convert, full of fresh zeal, 
win others to the Saviour ? This book aims, very 
briefly, to suggest when, where and how this 
may be done successfully. That it may be truly 
helpful to the "Busy Worker," it gives many il- 
lustrations, examples, incidents and facts — some 
entirely new — from real life, to show how every 
Christian can be what the loving Lord desires — 
a consecrated, earnest winner of souls — though 
engaged in the busy toil of life. 

Twoooptt* rwecetveo. 

(2) 



' B 1899^ J 



[Copyright, by The American-Sunday-School Union. 1899.] 







Contents. 

CHAP. PAGE 

A Hint 2 

I. The Christian Worker ; Who is He ? 5 

II. The Worker; Magnitude of His Work ... 10 

III. The Worker's Message 20 

IV. Preparation for the Work 37 

V. Gathering Materials 49 

VI. How to Study the Bible 55 

VII. The Bible as Literature 83 

VIII. Memorizing Scripture 90 

IX. Gathering Illustrations 93 

X. Methods of Work 103 

I. Classes to be Reached 103 

II. Ways of Reaching Them 124 

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HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY 
WORKERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CHRISTIAN WORKER — WHO IS HE? 
" Let him that heareth say, Come." — John. 

What is a Christian worker ? One who seeks 
the salvation of the human race through Christ. 
That is the work of an evangelist, is it not? 
True, it is. Who then should be an evangelist ? 
Every Christian. Oh no! say a hundred voices; 
that cannot be. But why not ? Is not every be- 
liever a witness ? And the book of Revelation at 
its close has this ringing command, "Let him 
that heareth say, Come." Now no person can 
be a Christian until he hears Christ's call. Who- 
ever repeats that call begins the work of an 
evangelist. 

EVERY CHRISTIAN AN EVANGELIST. 

So the trumpet-call of the new kingdom is, 
" Every Christian an evangelist." Wherever this 
becomes the watchword, the triumph of God's 
Kingdom will be near at hand. The Master's 

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6 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

marching order is, " Go ye therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations'' . . . " preach the 
gospel to the whole creation." See Matt, xxviii. 
19; Mark xvi. 15, R. v. 

You say this command was meant for the 
apostles only. Was this work, then, to end with 
the death of the twelve ? Every one exclaims, 
That is absurd. The command is to all Chris- 
tians in all ages, until the work is done. 

The Rev. Dr. Charles F. Beach in a suggestive 
little volume 1 says: "This work has not been 
laid exclusively upon the ministry. All who be- 
long to Christ are required to join with them in 
extending the invitation of the gospel to them 
that are without. . . . Whoever has been 
called of God, has been called as a co-worker 
with Christ in saving souls. . . . Jesus says 
in his prayer for his disciples ' As thou hast sent 
me into the world, even so have 1 also sent them 
into the world.' He has sent his disciples to 
finish his work, — the work of saving the lost. 
And the work is not given to a particular class, 
but to all his disciples. This is required not 
only by the instructions of his word, but by the 
essential spirit of the gospel. Every man who 
is really in Christ partakes in some degree of his 
spirit, and of his desire to save the lost. . . . 
In his own sphere, whatever it may be, he must 
say, Come. No disciple of Christ is exempt 
from this service." 

1 The Christian Worker : A call to the Laity, p. 17. 



THE CHRISTIAN WORKER— WHO IS HE? 7 

ALL DISCIPLES EVANGELISTS. 

How did the early Christians interpret Christ's 
command ? When the great persecution in Jeru- 
salem arose, "they were all scattered abroad/' 
"except the apostles." Mark the exception. 
The apostles were not scattered; they remained 
in Jerusalem. What did the scattered disciples 
do ? " They therefore that were scattered abroad 
went about preaching the word." Acts viii. i, 
4. Those that were scattered, and that were 
preaching then, were not apostles, for the 
apostles were still at Jerusalem. The scattered 
were the whole Christian assembly — in modern 
speech, the laity. As to one, so to every fol- 
lower Jesus said, " Go thou and proclaim abroad 
the kingdom of God." Luke ix. 60 (literal ren- 
dering). "Go out . . . and compel them 
to come in." Luke xiv. 2}. "The Spirit and the 
bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him 
say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come: 
he that will, let him take the water of life 
freely." Rev. xxii. 17, r. v. "Whosoever" is 
the forcible and felicitous reading of the Com- 
mon Version. Every saved soul is to be a win- 
ner of souls is the divine teaching. This is the 
very atmosphere of all of Christ's teaching. 
While the distinct marching order is not lacking, 
the mightier impulse and command appears in 
the whole tone, tendency and temper of the 
Master's strongest words. The disciple is a wit- 



HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

ness, a herald, a messenger, a winner of souls. 
This thought, says Dr. Pierson, 4, runs like a 
golden thread through his discourses, and even 
through his parables and miracles. " It is the 
mighty refrain that stirs the soul in every work, 
in every event and in every sacrifice of love of 
the Son of God. No disciple can fail to hear this 
silver trumpet calling to service for the great 
Captain of our salvation, and for the rescue of 
perishing souls. Its clarion note summons the 
hosts of Christians of every tongue, in every 
land, of every age, to unceasing action, to the 
unending proclamation of the good news of 
peace, and good will toward men; ''for unto 
you is born . . . a Saviour, Christ the Lord." 

LYMAN BEECHER's CHURCH. 

When Dr. Lyman Beecher was asked how he 
could do so much and have such success in his 
church in Boston, he replied, "Oh, it is not I, 
but my church that does it. I preach hard as I 
can on the Sabbath, and then I have 400 church 
members, who go out and preach every day of 
the week; they are preaching all the time; with 
God's blessing, that is what brings success." 

The mighty problem of the ages is salvation, 
the evangelization of the human race. Says Dr. 
Pierson, " All are to go, and to go to all." The 
rich legacy of every disciple is the blessed luxury 
and joy of winning souls to a glorious life. It is 
not a work given to angels, nor set aside for 






THE CHRISTIAN WORKER— WHO IS HE? 9 

apostles simply, nor limited to any class of dis- 
ciples. 

SOUL WINNERS. 

Some Christians seem to think this is the work 
of ministers, preachers, and those evangelists 
who travel from town to town conducting re- 
vival meetings. Or possibly it might be what 
Sunday-school teachers ought to do, but not the 
ordinary lay member of the church. 

Some people seem to think that women and 
children may have a duty to God, but men must 
look out for the family — must be bread-winners. 
They suppose that being " bread-winners" gives 
them a release from becoming " soul-winners'" 
and from serving God in any special way. Thus 
it comes that two out of three of the members of 
churches in America are women. The men 
meanly shirk their responsibility in religion, 
throwing it upon their wives, and sisters, and 
mothers. But they cannot thus escape personal 
responsibility to God and to their fellow men. 
If they could, they would thus miss the greatest 
joys of their lives, that of living for God them- 
selves, and of persuading their brother-man to 
live for him also. This is the happy privilege of 
all in the Christian church; of the great host of 
Christ's humble followers. What a mighty 
power would Christians be in the world, if they 
were completely filled with the spirit, impelling 
them to the work of winning souls for Christ! 




CHAPTER II. 

THE WORKER — MAGNITUDE OF HIS WORK. 

" Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations." 

— Jesus Christ. 

"The world for Christ" is the Christian's 
watchword. For, there is a Christ for the world. 
What is the disciple's work ? To the best of his 
ability, and opportunity, he is to be an evangel- 
ist. Obviously, then, his work is to make the 
gospel known to every creature. His work takes 
in the whole world unsaved. The command 
takes in the race now living: it takes in every 
generation of man also, to the end of time. It 
reaches out to the future of the millions of souls 
at present in the world, and to all the other mil- 
lions that shall be, until "the earth also and the 
works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Pet. 
iii. 10. To evangelize the world, therefore, is a 
gigantic problem. With the present force of 
gospel laborers, and at the present rate of prog- 
ress, it would take well-nigh a thousand years to 
make the gospel message known to all non-Chris- 
tian peoples. 

ONLY PLAYING AT MISSIONS. 

The mission of Christianity is to save the world. 
But as Dr. Duff exclaimed "Christendom has 

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THE WORKER— MAGNITUDE OF HIS WORK. 11 

only been playing at missions/' even in the nine- 
teenth century. 

For the present population on the globe, ac- 
cording to the best computations, is about fifteen 
hundred millions. About five hundred millions 
of these are nominally Christians, and perhaps 
seven hundred millions have heard the gospel in 
some way. But fully eight hundred millions 
have never heard of this message, much less have 
ever come under its influence. A careful student 
of this problem has declared that if all the mis- 
sionaries, evangelists and teachers in pagan, papal 
and Moslem lands, including men and women, 
foreign born and native born, were wisely dis- 
tributed, each one would have twenty-five thou- 
sand souls for which to care. But they are neither 
wisely nor economically distributed, and there 
are millions of the human race still wholly beyond 
the possibility of being reached by any of these 
gospel workers. 

GAINS OVER LOSSES. 

Even in Christian lands the chief gain by addi- 
tions to the body of Christian professors over the 
losses does not exceed three per cent, a year; 
and the average gain by conversions for the past 
fifty years has not been over seven yearly for 
every hundred professed Christians. It would 
be hard to dispute the statement that the total 
gains in the population of the world yearly, greatly 
exceed the total gains made by Christianity in all 




12 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

the forms of its activities. And this is true in 
face of the fact that in the nineteenth century the 
greatest advances have been made in Christian 
missions that have ever been made in any, if not 
in all the centuries since the foundation of Chris- 
tianity. 

MENACE OF MODERN CITIES. 

Moreover, the phenomenal growth of modern 
cities is seriously complicating the problem of 
evangelization. There has been a marked redis- 
tribution of population going on during the past 
twenty-five years. Great cities are growing 
greater far faster than the wider country is grow- 
ing; while large portions of the vaster country 
outside of the cities are gradually being depopu- 
lated. This process is going on in some of the 
oldest as in the newest Christian nations. Lon- 
don is two thousand years old; yet four-fifths of 
its increase of population has been added during 
the nineteenth century. Paris also has gained 
fourfold in a century. Even old Rome has 
doubled its population since 1870. St. Peters- 
burg has gained threefold in seventy-five years, 
and Calcutta has done nearly the same in seventy 
years; Berlin also. l 

But in our own country these marked changes 
from rural to urban population are greater than 
those abroad. Chicago has more than doubled 
her population in a decade; but in that same 

x See further statements in Strong's Twentieth Century. 



THE WORKER— MAGNITUDE OF HIS WORK. 13 

period 792 townships in the state have been 
partly depopulated. 

From 1880 to 1890 the cities in our country- 
gained sixty-one per cent, in population, while 
the rural population increased only fourteen per 
cent. In ten thousand townships it actually di- 
minished. 

CITY CHURCHES. 

These phenomenal changes have been accom- 
panied by corresponding changes in the progress 
of evangelical religion. The best available statis- 
tics from the United States census and from other 
sources show that in 1840 there was in Boston 
one Protestant church to every 1,228 souls. In 
1890 there was only one to every 2,580 souls. In 
New York in 1840 there was a Protestant church 
to every 1,992 souls, but in 1890 only one to every 
4,360 souls. It is said that in 1890 our larger 
cities generally had only half as many Protestant 
churches in proportion to the population as they 
had fifty years earlier. 

GAINS IN CHURCH STRENGTH. 

But there is another side to these discouraging 
figures, that have been paraded before us lately, 
on the platform, in the press, and through circu- 
lars. While in some great cities the evangelical 
churches may not be proportionately so numer- 
ous as fifty years ago, many of them were each 
more than twice as strong in 1890 than they were 
in 1840, and they continue steadily to gain in num- 



14 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

bers and in influence. It is vastly wiser and bet- 
ter to have proportionately fewer churches, and 
have them strong, than to multiply ^churches, 
only to have them weak, their sickly existence 
continued by the sufferance of a worldly com- 
munity. Moreover the number of members in 
evangelical churches was one to every fourteen 
and one-half of population in 1800, but during 
the century the proportion rose over threefold — 
being equal to one in every four and one-half in 
1890. This was a gain far greater proportion- 
ately than the gain in population in the same 
period. 1 

Again, the census reports show that two-thirds 
of the entire population of our nation still live in 
the country districts. If one-half of these coun- 
try folk absent themselves from church, and do 
not allow the gospel to control their lives, here is 
clearly the largest work, and the greatest problem 
to bring the gospel to them, and to make them 
disciples. 

INCREASE OF CRIME. 

However, the census reports do show an alarm- 
ing increase of crime, along with the increase of 
our great cities. For example, in Philadelphia 
there are seven and a half times as many crimes 
to a given population, and in Pittsburgh and 
Allegheny nearly nine times as much crime as in 
the average rural county of Pennsylvania. Thus 

1 The gain in population in the whole country was twelvefold, while the 
gain in church membership was thirty-eighuold. 






THE WORKER -MAGNITUDE OF HIS WORK. 15 

the massing of population in our great cities is 
a menace to the progress of religion, and ren- 
ders the problem of evangelization increasingly 
difficult. 

NEGLECT OF CHURCH. 

Furthermore, the late Earl of Shaftesbury de- 
clared that not more than two per cent, of the 
workingmen in England were accustomed to at- 
tend public worship; and Dr. Christlieb pre- 
sented a carefully-prepared report to the Evan- 
gelical Alliance at Copenhagen, showing a wide- 
spread falling off in attendance on public worship 
in Europe during the previous twenty years, 
followed by a marked increase in crime. Berlin 
then had one church for every 50,000 of popula- 
tion, and only about two per cent, of population 
regularly attended public service. In Hamburg 
it was claimed that only one and one-quarter per 
cent, of the population were regular attendants 
on public worship. In London 1,250,000 out of 
4,000,000 neglected public worship. And the 
non-attendance at worship in America was so 
conspicuous as to lead the late Dr. John Hall to 
say that England was composed of churchmen 
and dissenters, but America of churchmen and 
absenters. 

RURAL DISTRICTS, WHY BETTER? 

But this tendency to neglect the church and 
the gospel in the great cities is not so serious as 
a similar tendency in the rural districts. For 



16 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

statistics show that the greater portion of young 
men who enter the ministry come from rural 
homes, and have had their early bias and instruc- 
tion amid rural surroundings. It was Dr. Mark 
Hopkins who said, "You might sweep the 
whole of New York Gity into the ocean to-mor- 
row, and the country would recover quicker, and 
come out of it better than if you should destroy 
a similar number of men and women, and an 
equivalent amount of property .in the country 
towns." This' is because there is a greater indi- 
viduality and a wider and more even distribution 
of ability, wealth and influence in the country 
than in the city. There are also better conditions 
for the development of right moral principle, and 
healthy social character. The country youth 
coming into contact with the city-bred in the 
business of life, wins the race in five cases out of 
seven, chiefly owing to better early environment, 
and better means for developing strong char- 
acter. 

But in the best states there is room for a large 
gospel work. Dr. S. W. Dike says that in the 
fourteen northern states east of the Mississippi, 
the non-church goers are found largely among 
those who live more than two miles from the 
nearest church, the proportion being fifty per 
cent, greater outside that limit than within it. 
Professor F. G. Wright, of Oberlin College, states 
that one half of all the population in the state of 
Vermont never go to church. Vermont is a 



THE WORKER— MAGNITUDE OF EIS WORK. 17 

rural state yet believed to be one of the best in 
the Union. 

Since two-thirds of the entire population of 
the Union live in the country, here is where the 
Christian worker must direct his chief energies 
if he would bring the gospel to the masses. 
Some churches have mission stations in rural dis- 
tricts, and occasional preaching service is held in 
country schoolhouses. Another most efficient 
and inexpensive agency is the Sunday-school. 
The missionaries of the American Sunday-school 
Union, for example, report that they establish 
from 1,500 to 2,000 Bible study services each 
year in as many needy rural communities. But 
there are, it is said, still about 10,000,000 of youth 
in the land that do not come under gospel influ- 
ences. 

BAQK TO PRIMITIVE PLANS. 

It is evident then that in order successfully to 
accomplish this gigantic work, Christianity, must 
turn to its primitive methods. If the Kingdom 
of God is to triumph speedily over the world, the 
proclamation of the gospel must not be limited 
to a select class, whether they claim to be suc- 
cessors of the apostles, prophets, or to an or- 
dained class of teachers, ministers, priests, or 
even special evangelists. The entire host of 
Christ's followers must each recognize the Lord's 
command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to the whole creation." Mark xvi. is, 
R. v. Every Christian must be a servant not only 



18 HAXDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

to his fellow Christian, but to the world unsaved. 
For that word " minister" in the New Testament 
conveys no idea of superiority nor of command 
nor of domination. It is rather the badge of 
subordination and of service. "Whosoever 
would become great among you, shall be your 
minister (literally ' servant ') : and whosoever 
would be first among you, shall be servant of all 
(literally 'slave to all')." Mark x. 43, 44, r. v. 
All impartial church historians affirm that the 
spirit of early Christianity required all believers 
to become evangelists and witnesses to the 
truth, and that a priestly or privileged class of 
preachers was alien to its spirit. Even Hilary, 
an early deacon at Rome, declares that in order 
to the spread of Christianity all must be allowed 
to evangelize and even to baptize, and to explore 
and explain the Scriptures. Tertullian declares 
also not only that the laity have a right to teach, 
but may also have a right to use all the instru- 
ments of grace connected with the sacraments, 
even to the administering of the same. A few, 
like Ignatius, near the close of the second cen- 
tury, preferred to have nothing done without 
bishop or presbyter or deacon. But the views 
of the great host of Christians during the first 
two centuries were for the widest service by 
every Christian, and that every follower of the 
Master should proclaim what the Lord had done 
for his soul, so that others might be won to his 
service. 



THE WORKER— MAGNITUDE OF HIS WORK. 19 

Does any one say this work of evangelizing 
the world is impossible? Hear the Master's re- 
ply: "With men this is impossible; but with 
God all things are possible." Without him the 
salvation of a single soul is not possible; but 
with the baptism of the Spirit such as it has 
pleased God to vouchsafe to his people in the 
past, and of which he gives a larger promise in 
the present and for the future, it is possible 
within one generation to have the whole world 
know of Christ the Saviour. 



CHAPTER IIL 

THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 



"We preach Christ crucified." — Paul. 

If the angel Gabriel should send to the human 
race a telegraphic message of only ten words, it 
might run thus: "Man is lost by sin; Jesus 
Christ is man's Saviour." And this must be 
the beginning, the middle and the end of the 
evangelistic message. Man has wilfully wan- 
dered from God; he must willingly turn back to 
God. 

It is said of Nettleton that he could stand be- 
fore an audience and slowly repeat: "I — thought 
— on — my — ways — and — turned — my — feet — 
unto — thy — testimonies/ 7 with such graphic and 
feeling power that the whole assembly would be 
mightily moved, as by a divine impulse, before 
he began to preach. It was the power of the 
divine word, spoken with an unction from the 
divine Spirit. This power to use the word is 
what every evangelist must learn. This is what 
he must do, use the word which is the sword of 
the Spirit. 

AN EVANGELIST. 

What in reality is an evangelist? He is one 
who tells good news. This is the literal mean- 

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THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 21 

ing of the word. If the message is good, it is 
natural to suppose that the messenger is good 
also. But the word evangelist does not say what 
kind of good news the message is, nor does it 
say what sort of a character the messenger may 
be. In Christian circles, however, the word has 
a definite and distinct meaning. When Paul 
says to Timothy, "Do the work of an evangel- 
ist," it is clear that he wants Timothy to pro- 
claim to man the good news of salvation, and 
not to busy himself with telling some other and 
worldly kind of news. 

PASSION FOR SOULS. 

The evangelist must be on fire with a passion 
for souls. He must, like his Master, seek the 
lost. To him all mankind — the masses as well 
as the millionaires, the lapsed as well as the 
learned classes — are alike dead in trespasses and 
sins. When reproved for spending so much 
time, labor, and zeal for bettering workingmen, 
and asked how he, a man of such great refine- 
ment and such cultured sensibilities, could endure 
the close contact with so much that was coarse 
and rude, F. W. Robertson replied, "My tastes 
are with the aristocracy, but my principles are 
with the mob." And Sir William Hamilton said, 
there is nothing great on earth but man, and 
nothing truly great in man but mind. 

Of Jesus it was repeatedly said, the scribes and 
Pharisees murmured against him, the priests de- 



22 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

spised him — but the common people heard him 
gladly. God hath chosen the poor of this world, 
rich in faith. He calls not many rich, mighty, 
learned, noble, high-born. He calls the " fool- 
ish," the ''weak," the '"base," the "despised" 
and the nobodies, that no flesh should glory be- 
fore him. See i Cor. i. 27, 28, r. v. Matthew 
Arnold used to speak of society as the upper 
class — materialized, the lower class — brutalized, 
and the middle class — vulgarized. But God is 
no respecter of persons, of class distinctions; all 
have sinned — all have come short of the glory of 
God — all need a divine Saviour. 

EVERY CHRISTIAN AN EVANGELIST. 

Why then should not every Christian be an 
evangelist, telling others the wonderful story of 
salvation? "Oh, but," says one, "I haven't the 
gifts; that takes a preacher." Another exclaims, 
"I don't know enough; that requires a teacher; 
and if I did know enough, I haven't the tact to 
succeed." But dear friends, you are not asked 
to be either a preacher, a pastor or a teacher. 
Paul tells the Ephesians of five kinds of service 
which contribute to the building up of Christ's 
kingdom. There are apostles and prophets and 
evangelists and pastors and teachers. Each of 
these renders a service valuable in itself, but 
different from each of the others; and they are 
all for the perfecting of the saints. The evan- 
gelist is entirely distinct from the preacher and 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S 3IESSAGE. 23 

teacher. His work is very simple: it is to take 
the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to 
the unconverted. The pastor and teacher are to 
instruct those who have received the gospel 
message. Captain W. E. Smith, the secretary 
of the Evangelization Society of England, says, 
"We have the same authority for the work of 
the pastor and teacher as for that of the evan- 
gelist; therefore those who call themselves evan- 
gelists must recognize the work of the ministry 
also." 

god's message. 

The guide book for the evangelist must be the 
Bible. In it he must find God's message to the 
people; and he must study that book with an 
earnest desire to find out what message God 
would have him proclaim. 

What is the message the Bible sends to the 
human race? God's Revealed Word — 

i. Declares that man is a sinner. 

2. It tells of God's way of saving men. 

3. It tells how man may receive that salvation. 

4. It tells the consequences of rejecting it; and 

5. It explains what salvation is. 

Notice that again and again the Bible iterates 
and reiterates that man sinned. Indeed the Bible 
never would have been written — would have no 
reason for being— had man never sinned. Upon 
this awful fact the whole framework of the Bible 
rests; and because of that sin, God made the 



24 HANDY HELPS FOM BUSY WORKERS. 

written revelation to man, to declare the way 
of salvation. 

This is the mighty theme of every saved soul, 
of every evangelist: man lost through his own 
disobedience and dreadful sin; saved through 
the wonderful sacrifice of the Son of God. This 
is the profoundest wisdom — the wisdom of God. 
It is not needful to understand the philosophy of 
it; only tell the story, proclaim the gospel. 

" I preached philosophy, and men applauded ; 
I preached Christ Jesus, and men repented." 

Learn what that means: to preach Christ Jesus in 
all "his fulness (literally 'overflowing fulness') 
which ye have received, even grace upon grace." 
See John i. 16. The soul must be saturated with 
this thought — baptized with the fire and spirit of 
it. 

Then there must be a strong, clear, incisive 
and impassioned presentation of all that this 
means to the unconverted soul. Such a soul is 
dull in apprehending this truth. It is exceed- 
ingly slow in taking it in. Even so, when the 
truth dawns at all, it often comes by little and 
little. A very small point can be impressed — 
and only one point — at a time. Mark this as the 
common rule. 

FIVE POINTS. 

W. E. Smith, of the Evangelization Society of 
England, suggests, out of his varied experience, 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 25 

that the message may be presented in these five 
successive points: 

i. Man is in a sinful and lost condition, not 
only by the fall, but also by personal sin. 

2. God has provided salvation for lost man, by 
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore 
our sins in his own body on the cross. 

3. Man, a sinner, may obtain salvation by faith 
in Christ. 

4. The fruit and consequence of this faith is a 
changed life. 

5. The grave responsibility of all who hear this 
message. 

He regards this order in presenting the truth 
of the message as very important. Each point 
should be made quite clear. Make sure that one 
point is fully understood and grasped by the 
hearer, before taking up the next. Some lose 
the order and begin with the last point, and thus 
seem like one beating the air. 

For one must be convinced that he is a sinner 
— lost — before he will have any desire to be 
saved. 

I. MAN A SINNER. 

Suppose the houses opposite you are on fire. 
You have escaped from the burning buildings as 
with your life, and rejoice that you have. But 
you see the buildings filled here and there with 
people, and you want to save them. They do 
not know the houses are on fire; you shout to 
tell them, but they do not believe you. They 



26 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

think you are fooling them; they will not believe 
there is any danger, nor any fire. Then you re- 
double your earnestness; you shout again and 
again; you point out the evidences of the fire, — 
the smoke, the crackling of the flames, the fall- 
ing timbers; you strive in every way to convince 
them of their danger. You tell them the house 
is burning over their heads, and will soon crash 
in upon them. So step by step you arouse, con- 
vince and alarm them. Then, bewildered, they 
know not which way to escape. The smoke 
fills the stairways, the flames shoot up the ele- 
vator shaft, the heat drives them to desperation. 
You point them to a way out. They rush to 
safety under your direction. It was useless to 
tell them of a way out until you had convinced 
them that the house was burning over their 
heads. They would not move; they would pay 
no attention to your advice. So the sinner must 
be convinced of his danger, his lost condition, be- 
fore he will wish or care for salvation. Hence 
make clear the first point: 

Man is in $ sinful and lost condition, not only 
by the fall, but also by personal sin. 

The unconverted soul is in danger. You must 
make that danger so clear that that soul will see 
it, will believe it, will feel the lost condition. 
This can be done only by using the Word of 
God. 

There are two steps in this work. Impress 
the fact of a sinful nature in all, as a consequence 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S 3IESSAGE. 27 

of man's first disobedience. This is a hard truth 
for the unrenewed soul to receive. It can best 
be shown by clear declarations from the Scrip- 
tures. Read Rom. v. 12-14, I 7 -I 9; l Cor. xv. 
22] Rom. iii. 10; viii. 7; Mark vii. 21; Gal. iii. 
10, and many similar passages. Do not attempt 
to argue with the unconverted on how Adam's 
sin could make the race sinful and all men sin- 
ners. It will usually be worse than a waste of 
words to attempt to explain how it was that by 
one man's disobedience many were made sinners. 
Better state the fact in Scriptural language, giving 
the book, chapter and verse for what you assert, 
without further argument. 

CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN. 

The next and the stronger way to reveal the 
lost condition of the soul without Christ is to 
appeal to man's consciousness of personal sin. 
Read the picture of man by nature as sketched 
by an apostle's pencil in such passages as Rom. 
i. 29-32; vi. 15-23; vii. 9-25; 2 Cor. v. 11, 19, 
20; xiii. 5; Gal. v. 19-21; Eph. iv. 17-19; 2 
Thess. ii. 7-12. These cannot enter the heavenly 
city. Rev. xxii. 15. It is not merely that men are 
born of sin, with sinful hearts and have sinful 
natures; it is also that man indulges rather than 
tries to restrain that sinful tendency. The soul 
drifts; tiring of any struggle toward truth, right 
and God, it floats away on a sea of amiability, 
jovial good nature, when the body is full of 



28 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

animal spirits, or dumpish, churlish or ugly 
when the digestion is bad. Thus the person 
lives only along the lower nature in common 
with the brutes, forgetful and neglectful of the 
higher that was made in the image 5f God. 

It is unbelief in God that thus becomes the 
greatest sin and the root of all sin; that makes 
the soul at enmity with God. This is why sin is 
devilish, of the devil-nature. John viii. 44 and 1 
John iii. 4. Whatever iS not of faith is sin, Rom. 
iv. 23; it springs from a bad heart. Matt. xv. 19. 
So long as the heart is unrenewed, the life must 
be sinful. Gen. vi. 5; viii. 21. 

How does God regard a sinful race ? Read 
and reread John iii. 16 until your soul is saturated 
with the marvelous depth and grace of those 
words. The perishing world, moving the love 
of God to save it; and so moving him that he 
willingly gave up the loved One, the only be- 
gotten Son of God, for its salvation. Mercy 
beyond measure! grace, infinite grace, for the 
bitterest enemies! 

2. CHRIST THE SAVIOUR. 

God has provided salvation for lost man by 
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore 
our sins in his own body on the cross. 

"For God so loved the world." John iii. 16. 
It was the love of God that planned and brought 
redemption. God did not require to be appeased 
nor reconciled to man, for he loved him — so loved 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 29 

him that man was not left to himself in his ruin. 
God called to him out of his loving heart. He 
sent his only Son to save the lost. What 
wonderful love! Whosoever believeth on Jesus 
Christ will not perish, but will have eternal life. 
1 ' Can Christ save me?" asked a middle-aged man. 
"Oh yes." He says " Whosoever "; that means 
you. It was God's plan to save sinners in 
Christ. " God, who hath saved us . . . ac- 
cording to his own purpose and grace." 2 Tim. 
i. 9. "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord." Ps. 
iii. 8. He saves through Christ alone: "And 
in none other is there salvation: for neither is 
there any other name under heaven, that is given 
among men, wherein we must be saved." Acts iv. 
12, r. v. 

Show what Christ did and suffered for the 
sinner on the cross. It is not the cross, how- 
ever, that saves, but Jesus Christ; it is not the 
material blood of Christ that saves; it is Christ 
that saves. People talk so much about the cross 
as sometimes to give the impression that the 
cross saves. Some exclaim that a "drop of his 
blood will cleanse from all guilt." But that is 
misleading; the blood will do us no good unless 
we accept Christ. He shed his blood for us for 
the remission of sin. Remember then, it is 
Christ, and Christ alone, that saves the sinner. 

This is a very simple truth. It is so simple 
and elementary that you think everybody knows 
it. But thousands mistake it, misunderstand it, 



30 



HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 



stumble just here. So make it very clear: Christ 
Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the cross. 

3. SALVATION BY FAITH. 

Man, a sinner, may obtain salvation by faith 
in Christ 

The sinner, the moralist, the professed re- 
ligionist, cannot buy salvation; he must accept 
it. If he would have it, he must receive it on 
God's terms and in God's way. He may not 
understand the why nor the wherefore. The 
mode of it and the reason for doing it may be, it 
is, a deep mystery. The sinning soul is not re- 
quired to explain it; all he has to do is to have 
faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. If he is too 
weak even to have the faith, God will give that 
to whomsoever has the faintest desire for it. 
Saving faith is the gift of God. Eph. ii. 8; com- 
pare Rom. xii. 3. 

While man, a sinner, is saved by the grace of 
God, that salvation comes by faith in Jesus 
Christ. "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou 
shalt be saved, thou and thy house," said Paul to 
the jailer. Acts. xvi. 31, r. v. "If thou shalt con- 
fess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt be- 
lieve in thy heart that God raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. x. 9, R. v. 

You cannot earn it by good works, " for by 
grace ye have been saved through faith: and that 
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Eph. ii. 
8, r. v. 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 31 

Those very weak in the faith may be saved, 
but they will not do much toward saving others; 
it takes fuller faith to do works for the Master. 
Even the apostles could not cure the child at the 
foot of the Mount of Transfiguration. Matt. xvii. 
19, 20; xxi. 21 ; see also Mark ix. 23; Luke xvii. 
6. Lady Huntingdon invited a brother of George 
Whitefield to tea. He was concerned about sal- 
vation. After many fruitless efforts by Lady 
Huntingdon to comfort and direct her guest, 
he suddenly exclaimed, "I'm lost! I'm lost!" 
" Bless God for that!" cried Lady Huntingdon. 
In blank amazement Whitefield put down his cup, 
and, looking at his hostess with surprise tinged 
with indignation, he said, "Why do you bless 
God that I am lost?" "Because Jesus Christ 
came to save the lost," was the calm reply of 
the hostess. That proved the needed word to 
arouse his faith. Whitefield had peace from that 
hour. 

As Moses pointed to the brazen serpent and 
commanded the people to look and live, so point 
to Christ and bid the convicted soul to trust Christ 
and receive eternal life. It is well to urge the 
soul " Come to Jesus "; it is better to show that 
soul who and what Jesus is to the sinner. 

4. THE NEW LIFE. 

Jesus said plainly to Nicodemus, "Except a 
man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." John iii. 6, r. v. "I will put a new 



32 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

spirit within you." " A new heart also will I 
give you," says the Lord. Ezek. xi. 19; xxxvi. 26. 
Paul says we are baptized into Christ Jesus that 
" We also might walk in newness of life." Rom. 
vi. 4, r. v. So great is the change that he calls 
it a spiritual resurrection from the dead. Eph. ii. 
5; Col. iii. 1. 

The fruit and consequence of this faith is a 
changed life. The unconverted soul lives for self 
in some form. It may be a very subtle form, hard 
to distinguish from the new life; it may be a 
very gross form, so that the outward change is 
painfully marked, so strong is the contrast. In 
either case conversion is a changed life — a life for 
God. Make it clear what conversion is in your 
own mind; then you may make it fairly clear to 
others. There is a deep fog on this subject, alas! 
too often in Christians' minds. 

HOW CONVERSION DIFFERS FROM REGENERATION. 

Conversion should never be confounded with 
regeneration. The two never are confounded in 
Scripture, though they often are by evangelists, 
teachers, and Christian writers. Whoever will 
carefully study the original Scriptures or the 
Revised Version of the New Testament will see 
that conversion is uniformly represented as the 
act of the human soul, while the new birth, or 
regeneration, is represented as an act of God. 
There is no warrant in Scripture for the teaching 
"be converted," as if it were something the soul 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 33 

must submit to have done. It is rather some- 
thing God requires the soul to do. 

The common English Version indeed does con- 
fuse the two by a faulty rendering of the word 
in the passive form, "be converted "; but in 
every case where the word occurs in the Greek 
it is not passive, but should be rendered, as in 
the Revised English Version, "turn" or "should 
turn/' thus declaring that it is man's act which is 
described. See Matt. xiii. 15; xviii. 3; Mark iv. 
12; Luke^xxii. 32; John xii. 40; and compare 
Acts. iii. 19; xxviii. 27; and James v. 19, 20, 

R. V. 

But some will say the other is the common 
way of stating this truth in the early days of the 
reformation. That is not so clear; but if it were, 
the word of God is what the evangelist is to use, 
and that word is plain on this point. Conversion 
is not regeneration. You cannot with reason tell 
a soul to regenerate itself, but you are authorized 
by the word of God to tell every human soul to 
turn to God. Regeneration is the work of the 
Holy Spirit, and his alone. To "turn" to God 
is the work of a human soul, and of it alone. 
And God promises to give, and always does 
give, grace to any soul that wills and seeks to 
turn to God, and to that soul alone. 

What, then, is conversion ? A solemn thing, 
surely. It is a very radical thing, turning from 
self and the world to God. No one who under- 
stands the issue will talk as though this was not 



34 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

a serious and solemn thing. It is a serious thing 
to face the God that makes and the Christ that 
redeems us. 

Therefore you ought to make it clear that the 
soul must turn to God. Every one that seeks the 
aid of the Holy Spirit may do this. The regener- 
ation or "new birth'' is the Holy Spirit's work. 
He is eVer waiting to do that, and will do it 
effectively when the soul turns to God. More 
than this, he will help the soul to turn to God. 

5. MAN CHOOSES LIFE OR DEATH. 

Consider, then, the grave responsibility of all 
who hear this message. 

This message must be met and squarely faced. 
It cannot be dodged, tossed aside as of small con- 
sequence, nor evaded. It demands an answer, a 
response. Whoever neglects it by that act de- 
clares either that he does not believe the mes- 
sage to be true or that he is determined to fight 
God. There is no neutral ground. The soul 
must decide for God or against him. Neglect- 
ing to make deliberate choice puts the soul as 
effectively among the enemies of God's kingdom 
as if a deliberate choice to fight God had been 
made. 

So the message proves to one class a savor 
from life unto life, and to the other class a savor 
from death unto death. See 2 Cor. ii. 16, r. v. 

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great 
salvation?" Heb. ii. 3. And again the same 



THE EVANGELISTIC WORKER'S MESSAGE. 35 

writer adds, "See that ye refuse not him that 
speaketh. For if they escaped not when they re- 
fused him that warned them on earth, much more 
shall not we escape, who turn away from him 
that warneth from heaven." Heb. xii. 25, r. v. 

Whatever may be your views upon the theo- 
logical doctrines of ability and grace, or your 
theoretical beliefs on these subjects, practically 
you know that the choice is yours. It is con- 
sciously within your field. You believe that 
though you choose to do this, and did not choose 
to do the opposite, you could have made a differ- 
ent choice if you had willed so to do. 

PENALTIES. 

Human law, with its penalties, recognizes this 
in all its enactments. Upon this principle of per- 
sonal responsibility man pivots all his punish- 
ment of crime; and this personal responsibility 
rests upon the deeper basis that man ought to 
obey just and right law. So God makes an ap- 
peal to man on a similar basis of what man ought 
to do. If the soul could not possibly think, speak, 
nor do other than it does, such a soul would not 
and could not have any sense of guilt. The soul 
does feel guilt; hence personal responsibility is 
clear, just and holy, rendering the law also holy. 
Read Paul's masterly argument on this subject in 
the letter to the Romans. 

Make the truth red-hot with the intensity of 
your faith, fervor, and swiftness of statement. 



36 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

Let the message be that of the Spirit, glowing 
with the Spirit's power, sweeping the intellect, 
swaying the emotions, storming the conscience, 
swinging the will completely around toward God 
and salvation. When the Spanish fleet of war- 
ships attempted to escape from Santiago de Cuba, 
the American squadron bombarded them with a 
terrific hail of shell and shot that was perfectly 
irresistible, and would have annihilated them had 
they not surrendered. So the souls that attempt 
to escape from the message of heaven need to 
have a perfect storm of warning, promise and 
reproof from the arsenal of the Almighty until 
they are so overwhelmed that surrender is the 
only thing they can think of — their only refuge. 






CHAPTER IV. 

PREPARATION FOR WORK. 
" To every man his work." — Jesus. 

If one was called to aid a great artist or archi- 
tect, he would want to make some preparation 
for it. The Christian is called to co-work with 
the Divine architect in building up spiritual char- 
acter. How shall he prepare for it? The first 
Christians were directed to wait in Jerusalem un- 
til they were clothed with power from on high. 
Luke xxiv. 49, r. v. They waited, therefore, for 
the promise of the Father, the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. Acts i. 4, 5. 

No person is prepared for the work of winning 
souls, without this baptism of the Spirit. The 
usefulness of one's service, and the character of 
it, will be measured by the fulness of this spirit- 
ual enduement. 

I. THE SPIRITUAL PREPARATION, 

then, is first. This will, come by waiting in the 
presence of God. Communion and prayer with 
God must be fervent, continued and earnest. It 
must be accompanied by a full surrender to God's 
will. 
The pure in heart shall see God. Keep there- 

(37) 



38 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

fore, a clean conscience, and a healthy, undefiled 
heart. Said McCheyne, "study likeness to Christ 
in all things." Of Janev/ay, his brother writes : 
"I once hid myself that I might take the more 
exact notice of the intercourse that I judged was 
kept up between him and God. Oh, what a 
spectacle did I see! Surely a man walking with 
God, conversing intimately with his Maker, and 
maintaining a holy familiarity with the great Je- 
hovah. Methought I saw one talking with God. 
I saw a spiritual merchant in a heavenly exchange, 
driving a rich trade for the treasures of another 
world. Oh, what a glorious sight it was! How 
sweetly did his face shine! Oh, with what lovely 
countenance, did he walk up and down — his lips 
going, his body often reaching up, as if he would 
have taken his flight into heaven! His looks, his 
smiles, and every motion spoke him to be upon 
the confines of glory! " 

Walking with God seems a very common- 
place truth. "Translate it into action," writes 
another, and "how lustrous it becomes! The 
phrase, how hackneyed — the thing, how rare!" 

WHITEFIELD AND GARRICK. 

Whitefield was noted for the marvelous ten- 
derness of tone in his boldest and most impas- 
sioned appeals. This tenderness sprang from the 
vividness of his sense of the presence of God, 
through prayer. The famous actor Garrick once 
said that he would give an hundred guineas to 



PREPARATION FOR WORK. 39 

be able to say " Oh! " as Whitefield could say it. 
Yet Whitefield was neither an actor, nor a rheto- 
rician. He spoke from such profound emotion 
of the heart, that he could make an audience 
tremble or weep, by merely pronouncing a word 
like Mesopotamia, so hearers declared. He put 
life, reality, power into every sentence. Truth 
was translated into living scenes. It was his 
heart in his words, that struck the trumpeter and 
fiddler dumb with amazement, to hear Whitefield 
suddenly call to the angel Gabriel, "Stop! wait! 
to bear yet to heaven, the news of one sinner 
reconciled to God! " 

When a soul is stirred thus by deep feeling, 
other souls must feel, — they must be moved as 
by a power divine. 

finney's experience. 

Charles G. Finney, describing his own experi- 
ence, says, that he continued crying in prayer, 
"Lord, thou canst not lie; I take thee at thy 
word; I do search with all my heart; I know that 
I have found thee." Then peace filled his soul. 
Love flooded his whole being, till he cried out, 
'■ Lord, I can bear no more." 

First of all then, walk with God; wait for the 
baptism of the Spirit continually; receive to the 
full that enduement of power from on high. 

You ask, how may it be obtained ? As every 
other gift from God. It comes through prayer 
and faith. Study the Word of God, until you 



40 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

perceive how wonderful a gift this is. Then 
study again until you have some idea of how 
great your need is of the gift. Mark how freely 
and largely God is willing to bestow it, how far- 
reaching and strong are his promises to grant it 
to every soul that asks. According to your faith 
be it unto you is his repeated word to seek- 
ers. Is your faith weak ? Continue earnestly the 
prayer, " Lord,, increase our faith." 

Moody's preparation. 

D. L. Moody tells how he was prepared for 
winning souls. He says: "I had been a Chris- 
tian twenty-one years, and had worked in a mis- 
sion school in Chicago. A blessing of God came 
upon that school through one of its teachers. 
This teacher had been very faithful. But we 
labored there for numbers, more than we did for 
winning souls. 

1 ' This teacher came into the store one day. 
He had been bleeding at the lungs again, and his 
doctor had given him up to die. He wore a long 
sad face. ' Well, you are not afraid to die, are 
you ?' I asked. ' No. 1 am not afraid to die; but 
I am afraid to meet my Sabbath-school class be- 
fore the throne of God, — none of them are Chris- 
tians. If I had been more faithful, I might have 
brought them to Christ/ 

" Before leaving for his eastern home to die, 
he went and prayed with each of his class. I 
drove him around from one house to another. 



PREPARATION FOR WORK. 41 

When his strength failed, I gave it up for that 
day. The next day we started out again, and 
the next and the next. Thus for ten days he 
labored and prayed with them, until all were 
brought to Christ. I suggested that the whole 
class meet the teacher. They did, and that night 
I got a new impulse for heaven and was full of 
work. If you could have heard that teacher 
pray for those scholars, that God would keep 
them faithful, it would have stirred your hearts. 
Then one and another of the scholars tried to 
pray, but some broke down in tears. 

"The next night the teacher was to leave. 
About sundown we went down to the station. 
There had been no appointment to meet, but 
there was the whole class. They sang, 

" « Here we meet to part again ' 

then the teacher stepped upon the platform of the 
slowly moving train. 1 shall never forget how 
he pointed to yonder sky, saying, 'Meet me 
there/ Oh, I went to work for Christ, as I 
never went to work before. 

" After a time they got me into committees. I 
was president of this and that committee, and for- 
got to work for souls, and at last 1 lost the power. 
1 preached and preached, but it was beating the 
air. A good woman said to me, 'Mr. Moody, 
you don't seem to have power in your preaching/ 
Oh, my desire was that I might have a fresh 
anointing. I requested this woman and a few 



42 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

others to come and pray with me every Friday 
at four o'clock. How pitiously I prayed to God 
that he would fill the empty vessel! 

" After the fire in Chicago I was in New York 
City, and going into a bank in Wall Street, it 
seemed as if I felt a strange, mighty power 
coming over me. I went up to the hotel, and 
there, in my room, I wept before God. I cried, 
' O, my God stay thy hand.' He gave me such a 
fulness, it seemed more than I could contain. 
May God forgive me, if I should speak in a boast- 
ful way; but I do not know of a sermon I have 
preached since, but God has given me some soul. 

" I would not go back where I was years ago 
for all the wealth of this*world. If you would 
roll it at my feet, I would kick it away like a 
football. I seem a wonder to some of you, but 
I am a greater wonder to myself. 

"These are the very same sermons I preached 
in Chicago, word for word. It is not a new ser- 
mon, but the power of God. It is not a new 
gospel but the old gospel with the power of the 
Holy Ghost." 

BRAINERD TAYLOR'S BLESSING. 

This power of the Spirit, following a complete 
consecration, is not merely a modern experience. 
Nearly a century ago David Brainerd Taylor re- 
cords a similar fervor of spirit. He writes: 

"For some days I have been desirous to visit 
some friends who are distinguished for fervor of 



PREPARATION FOR WORK. 43 

piety, and remarKable for the happiness which 
they enjoy in religion. After my arrival I took a 
hymn-book, where I found a hymn descriptive of 
my situation. This increased my desire that the 
Lord would visit me, and baptize me with the 
Holy Ghost. I lifted my heart in prayer that the 
blessing might descend. My earnest desire was, 
as it had been ever since I professed religion six 
years before, that all love of the world might be 
destroyed, all selfishness extirpated, pride ban- 
ished, unbelief removed, all idols dethroned, 
everything hostile to holiness and opposed to 
the divine will crucified. . . . 

" At this junction I was most delightfully con- 
scious of giving up all to God. I was enabled to 
say in my heart, ' here, Lord, take me, take my 
whole soul, and seal me thine; thine now, 
thine forever.' Then there ensued such emo- 
tions as I never experienced before, — all was 
calm and tranquil, silent, solemn, and a heaven of 
love pervaded my whole soul. Shortly after. I 
was dissolved in tears of love and gratitude to 
our blessed Lord. 

"But this is not all: since that blessed season I 
have enjoyed times of refreshment, in which I 
have gained nearer access to God. I have en- 
joyed his presence from day to day. Oh. the 
peace I have had, and joy in the Holy Ghost! It 
has flowed like a river. I have been happy in my 
Lord; 1 have exulted in the God of my salva- 
tion." 



44 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

The power of the Spirit came in similar, ways 
upon the disciples at Pentecost, upon Peter before 
the Jewish council, upon Stephen, upon Samaritan 
disciples, upon Saul, upon the Gentiles at Caesa- 
rea, upon Ephesian disciples, and upon the whole 
church which "walking in the fear of the Lord 
and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was mul- 
tiplied," 1 

2. MENTAL PREPARATION. 

The Lord never does for a disciple, what that 
disciple can do for himself. God has given man 
a mind to think, to inquire, to study his will and 
word. Many hints toward this mental prepara- 
tion will be found in the admirable little works 
of Spurgeon on "Advice to Seekers," "Counsels 
to Workers," "Words of Cheer" and in such 
recent brief books, as "Gateways to the Bible" 
and "Is Christianity True." Also "Our Sixty- 
six Sacred Books," what they are and how they 
came to us, gives a concise and intelligent ex- 
planation of our English Bible. "Excuse Me," 
by Mr. Stiles, points out many bright, common 
sense ways of meeting the prevailing excuses for 
not becoming a Christian. 

STUDY THE GUIDE BOOK. 

But before and above all, the evangelistic 
worker must be a master of one book, the Bible. 
It is his guide book, his daily companion — his 
meditation day and night, his constant mental 

1 See Acts ii. 4 ; iv. 8 ; vi. 5 ; viii. 17 ; ix. 17 ; x. 44 ; xix. 6 ; ix. 31. 



PREPARATION FOR WORK. 45 

food. Study it, seeking the illumination of the 
Spirit. 

Read any of the simple narratives of the strug- 
gles of D. L. Moody to overcome the defects of 
early education, and how he spent days, weeks, 
and months of study to master the Bible, and to 
become familiar with the most forcible and sim- 
ple language, the most scriptural forms of ex- 
pression, as well as the most profound spiritual 
truths, and the most direct methods of reaching 
the heart. 

Whether the Bible, or any other good book is 
read, the reading must be followed by careful 
thinking. Always inquire, "What does this 
passage mean ? " " Do I understand it ?" " Could 
I make it clear to one who had never read it ? " 

If this is not done, one may have a wide fa- 
miliarity with the words of Scripture and very 
little idea of their true sense. 

BUND ALLICK. 

The famous "Blind Allick," (Alexander Lyons) 
of Stirling, Scotland, is a notable example of 
great knowledge of the words of the Bible and a 
gigantic memory, but with no real knowledge of 
its meaning and sense. It is said that he could 
repeat the whole Bible, and could finish any 
verse of any portion of it, when the first sentence 
was given. But when asked respecting the 
meaning of what he had repeated, or to cite a 
passage in support of any doctrine, his mind 



46 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

seemed a complete blank. For example, he 
could not even cite a verse in proof of the state- 
ment that all are sinners. But when one asked 
if there was not a verse telling us that "many 
were made sinners," he immediately repeated 
that entire verse, from memory, yet without 
having any such understanding of it, as to apply 
it in proof a doctrine. 

Now that kind of familiarity with the Bible 
may be vastly better than dense ignorance, but 
it is not the sort that will give power in the use 
of it, for winning souls. 

SEARCHING KNOWLEDGE. 

Mere commonplace truths, however sound 
and correct they may be, do not move the heart. 
Persons will give assent to any quantity of cur- 
rent beliefs on religion, without attaching any 
real sense to them, or supposing that their an- 
swers seriously mean anything. The questions 
can be so framed as unerringly to bring almost 
any answer desired. You ask a convicted crim- 
inal, "Are all men sinners?" Yes. " Are you 
a sinner ?" Yes, all men are that. "You know 
Jesus Christ died for all to save them ? " Yes. 
"Is he your Saviour?" I suppose so/ "Why 
is he your Saviour ?" He is a Saviour for every- 
body, isn't he ? And so on through the largest 
catechism. 

But now, try to apply these ideas to the per- 
son's experience, in the language and phrase of 



PREPARATION FOR WORK. 47 

his common life, and see how soon he is in the 
deepest darkness, on personal religion. 

APPLY THE TRUTH. 

You may be dealing with personal companions, 
alone, courteously, scripturally, and in the great- 
est earnestness, yet if the personal application is 
not made with tact, simplicity, and with the 
keenest knowledge of the peculiarities of thought 
and speech current upon religious topics, the ef- 
fort will fail. This personal application should be 
entirely free from the " stereotyped 7 ' and " cant" 
phrases, often used in religious conversation. 
Far better to put your thoughts, questions and 
explanations in the plainest colloquial words. To 
do this, will require some careful study of the 
speech of the common people, a close observa- 
tion of the expressions of the person with whom 
you are called to deal, lest your language become 
almost as unintelligible as if you were speaking 
in a foreign tongue. 

You will need to study the workings of the 
mind, in fact, what the learned call mental phi- 
losophy, and psychology, or the science of the 
mind, its mode of thinking, of seeking subter- 
fuges, of escaping from a sense of duty, in mor- 
als and refigion. When this observation and 
knowledge are sanctified by having your soul 
filled with the Holy Spirit, you will have laid a 
good foundation for a mental preparation for 
winning souls. 



48 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

3. PHYSICAL PREPARATION. 

This is put last, although in some respects, it 
is at the basis of all preparation. A healthy body, 
good digestion, calm nerves, strong muscles: in 
short, a body full of vitality in every part, should 
be coveted by every Christian. 

Not every one has such a splendid physical 
system as might be envied. Possibly few ever 
can attain to a perfectly sound body : yet every 
one can vastly improve "the house he lives in" 
by right habits. A careful observance of the laws 
of health, in cleanliness, in eating and drinking, 
in abstaining from unnecessary exposures, from 
being out late nights, going unprotected in stormy 
weather, and in other ways striving to obey the 
simplest hygienic rules, even those with naturally 
weak constitutions under such discipline have 
been able to accomplish an amount of work that 
has astonished many of their stronger companions. 

DYSPEPTIC RELIGION. 

Remember that a dyspeptic person is liable to 
have a " dyspeptic," lugubrious, wailing type of 
religion. Such a religion needlessly repels the 
multitude and seldom wins even 'the few. Let 
your religion make you cheerful, bright, and let 
it reflect the joy of the Christian lieart. Hear 
Paul in his afflictions call out: "Rejoice, and 
again I say rejoice." A healthy body, with good 
digestion, is quite essential, to do this with a nat- 
ural and easy grace. 






CHAPTER V. 

GATHERING MATERIALS. 

" For his God doth instruct him aright, and doth teach him." 

— Isaiah, r. v. 

Pick up the material next to you: use what you 
have. Be careful to have whatever you gather 
always in order so that you can have a ready 
command of it. 

" What is that in thine hand ?" said the Lord to 
Moses, in answer to his unwillingness to obey 
the Lord's call. "They will not believe me," 
urged Moses. But Moses himself was unbeliev- 
ing. "What is that in thine hand?" "A rod." 
"Cast it on the ground." He cast it on the 
ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled 
from before it. 

Here was a power in that rod, which Moses 
had never before known. Use the thing, the 
fact, the experience in your hand, at the call of 
the Lord for him, and you too may discover that 

it has a power you never before suspected. 

* 

BEECHER AND PRESIDENT PATTON. 

Some minds see the very air and earth about 
them full of material, as they were to Elisha, full 
of horses and chariots of fire. Some are as blind 

(49) 



50 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

to these hosts of the Lord as were the eyes of 
the young man. There are very few, who can 
safely imitate Henry Ward Beecher in leaving 
the preparation for a gospel message in the 
evening until an hour or two before the service. 
It is said that Dr. F. L. Patton, the president of 
Princeton University, will plan a sermon on the 
back of an envelope on his way to its delivery. 
That is possible in an emergency: he is a close 
student, and a great leader in thought. When 
such a man has once chosen a theme, thoughts 
and illustrations come flocking to his trained 
mind like doves to their windows. But it re- 
quires years of patient, masterful study, wide 
reading, accurate observation, and a decade of 
orderly thinking to fit even a gifted mind for 
clear, rapid work of this sort. 

A PROMISE MISUSED. 

Some new converts in an excess of zeal, re- 
solve to rely on the promise, "it shall be given 
you in that hour what ye shall speak," for, "the 
Holy Spirit shall teach you . . . what ye 
ought to say." Matt. x. 19; Luke xii. 12, r. v. 
This promise, however, was to disciples, when 
suddenly arrested and persecuted for Christ's 
sake, and when they had to meet an emergency, 
and would have no chance to prepare their testi- 
mony. It doubtless might be claimed now, by 
disciples in similar straits. It would be pre- 
sumption, however, to claim this promise, when 






GATHERING MATERIALS. 51 

• 

the person had ample time, opportunity, and fa- 
cilities for making due preparation. It would be 
using the promise as a cloak for indolence and 
laziness. God gives brains, time, and helps to 
his disciples to be used for his glory. He will 
not do for us, what he has given us power and 
opportunity to do for ourselves. He does not 
work wonders to encourage us in idleness, nor 
to deliver us from suffering the consequences of 
our own wilful neglect. 

HOW ILLUSTRATIONS COME. 

The Christian who would do well the work of 
an evangelist must gather his materials widely — 
from all books, magazines and papers he reads, 
from every event in life about him, from whatever 
he sees or hears — selecting and arranging all his 
knowledge as a jeweler labels and catalogues his 
jewels. He will soon find that helpful material 
will pour in upon him from the four winds of 
heaven, that the earth, sea, air, and the starry 
heavens are stored with a wealth of material for 
impressing God's message in the gospel upon the 
human heart, that the most brilliant imagination 
could scarcely conceive of. He can have it, for 
the picking: it is the most abundant and freest 
thing in the universe. 

In gathering material, begin with what God 
says to man. Literature, science, philosophy, 
poetry, and history may be learned from human 
sources: in religion man wants a " Thus saith the 



52 BANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

• 

Lord." Hence turn at once to the Christian Scrip- 
tures. 

STUDY THE BIBLE. 

If a dear friend came to see you, who had 
come from a long residence in a strange far-away 
land, that you expected soon to make your home, 
how eager you would be to converse with him. 
How many questions you would ask about that 
place, the people, their mode of life, the com- 
forts to be had, and what preparations and pro- 
visions would be best for you to make. If you 
could not see this wise friend, the next best 
thing would be to get a letter from him, telling 
you just the things you desired to know. 

THE BIBLE A LETTER. 

Now the Bible is such a letter from God. It 
tells us what we need to know about heaven, 
about himself, and about the way to his house 
above. In prayer we ask God what we think we 
want: in his word he tells us what he thinks 
we want and how to get it. Or, as some have 
said, " when we pray, we talk to God, when we 
study his word, God talks to us." But when 
we pray and study the Bible at the same time, 
then we have sweet converse, and communion 
with God. 

But you say there are a great many things in 
the Bible that I can't explain, and don't under- 
stand. What am I to do with them ? Do noth- 
ing with them. Let them alone. The Rev. Dr. 






GATHERING MATERIALS. 53 

Talmage was bothering his theological professor 
with these questions when the wise professor 
said, "Mr. Talmage, you better be content to let 
God know some things that you don't know." 
There are thousands of things in this world that 
the wisest do not understand. Some men know 
a great deal about electricity. They have studied 
it all their lives. They can tell how it can be 
gathered, stored, carried for miles, turned into 
light, or into power, how it may be made to light 
your house, heat your rooms, and run the ma- 
chinery in your factory. But if you ask them 
what electricity is none of them can tell you. 
Edison, Thomson, Tesla and all of the scientists 
will confess, we don't know. So in the book of 
God, we might expect to find many things that 
we cannot explain : that is one evidence that it 
is a book of God. 

BACON AND LOCKE ON BOOKS AND MEN. 

Bacon said, "Some books are to be tasted, 
others to be swallowed, and some few to *be 
chewed and digested." He meant that a few 
books only were to be read with attention, 
weighing and considering every sentence. 
Translate the truths of Scripture often into your 
own life and words. Make them clear and sharp 
to your own mind, so that you can make them 
clear to others. The minds of men are generally 
dull in grasping the truths of the Bible. The 
'earned Locke says, "We see men frequently 



54 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

dexterous, and sharp in driving a bargain, who, 
if you reason with them about matters of reli- 
gion, appear perfectly stupid." 

Let the Bible interpret itself, tell its own story. 
Do not carry your prejudices, your preconceived 
opinions to it, and then twist every verse to sup- 
port your opinion. Do not try to get out of a 
text more than it says: if you discover half that 
it does say you will be amazed at the breadth and 
depth of its meaning. Contend firmly for the 
truth — but be sure it is the truth, before you con- 
tend for it, else you may find yourself doing the 
work of the devil, and proclaiming lies, rather 
than the truth. But when satisfied that it is the 
truth, then be sure, that while firmly and zeal- 
ously you champion the truth, above all else, do 
it in love. 



CHAPTER VI. 

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 
« What shall I do, Lord ? "—Paul. 

Many volumes have been written to answer 
this question. There is a little book called, 
''Fourteen Ways of studying the Bible/' issued 
by the American Sunday-school Union, written 
for young persons. It is very suggestive. 
Am(5ng the ways suggested are: looking at the 
narrative; the meaning word by word, by sepa- 
rate clauses, parallel clauses, contrasted clauses, 
the study of a single verse, parallel verses, con- 
trasted verses, successive verses, quoted verses, 
key thought, the scope, the occasion, and analo- 
gies of the passage. 

Study the Bible: 

(a) Quietly, giving time for reflection, for as- 
similation. 

(b) Let the Holy Spirit reveal truth to the soul. 

(c) Study it methodically, systematically, ac- 
cording to some orderly plan. 

(d) Seek to have your own soul fed by it. 

(e) Study with constant prayer for light. 

(/) Study with pencil in hand to note the rich 
thoughts the Spirit reveals. 
Study the Bible to give you a great and noble 

(55) 



56 HANDY HELPS FOR BUST WORKERS. 

heart. The age of muscle, of brawn we have 
had, the age of intellect, of brain is on, the age 
of love, of nobility of heart is dawning. We in- 
herit the best results of the long ages of physical 
strength, the best accumulations, inventions and 
scientific thought of an age of brilliant intellec- 
tual powers, we are to add to these a more glori- 
ous age of fraternity, crystallizing the races into a 
mighty brotherhood, actuated by love, in which 
the highest honors will be won by the noblest of 
heart. 

PLANS FOR BIBLE STUDY. 

Every person must pursue the method of study 
best suited to his needs. The best method of 
study for one person may be the poorest for an- 
other. Be sure to have a method, and be fully 
persuaded that it is the best method for you. 
A few helps are indispensable. A good Concord- 
ance, or Index, a good and handy Bible Diction- 
ary must be owned by every busy worker. They 
can be had at very small cost. An Index to the 
Bible can be had for fifteen cents and my little 
Dictionary of the Bible for twenty cents, or 
SchaflTs larger Dictionary of the Bible for $1.75. 
A greater number of plans for studying the Bible 
may be grouped under seven divisions: 

I. CONSECUTIVE STUDY AND READING. 

F. B. Meyer says: "On the whole there is 
probably no better way than to read the Bible 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 57 

through once every year." There are several 
plans for doing this. Robert Murray McCheyne 
drew up such a plan for his people, and it was 
widely published and inserted in Bibles printed 
in Scotland. Mr. Meyer's plan is to read daily in 
a Bagster's Bible, three columns in the Old Testa- 
ment, two columns in the New Testament and 
one in the Psalms, which will more than go 
through the whole in a year. 

Another plan is that of the Bible Readers' Un- 
ion, which is followed by many thousands of 
Christians in every part of the world. They read 
one chapter daily in regular order, and cover the 
entire Bible in about three years. 

Another common plan is to read three chapters 
every week day and five chapters every Sunday, 
which takes the reader through the book in one 
year. Or, reading an average of eighty-five 
verses daily will take the reader through in one 
year also. 

It is quite the fashion among modern students 
of the critical school, to ridicule this method of 
study. Yet it has some advantages. It gives a 
knowledge of the Bible as a whole. If you were 
to study the anatomy of man you would not 
study the hand alone. You would begin with 
one portion as the head, the trunk or the limbs, 
and go through every part, to get a right idea of 
man's body. So you gain a good idea of the 
scope, the unity, and the many-sided phases of 
truth presented in the Bible, when you study or 



58 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

read it in course. The microscopic method, ex- 
cellent as it is for many purposes, fails to give as 
distinct impressions of the variety, unity and 
breadth of the book as the more comprehensive 
reading. R. A. Torrey says, that he decided to 
read the Common Version of, his Bible through 
every year, and the Revised Version also, and to 
read the New Testament through in Greek every 
year. It has proved so profitable that he would 
not willingly give up the plan. His reading is 
by course. 

ORDER OF BOOKS IN THE BIBLE. 

Some have advocated this Biblical order of 
study, since it is studying the Bible consecutively 
according to the present order of the books in 
our English Bibles. They have thought they 
were thus following the order designed by the 
Holy Spirit. But, of course, the order in our 
English Versions is not the only, nor probably 
the original order of these books. For it is well 
known that the Old Testament books are ar- 
ranged in a different order in the Hebrew Bible. 
In it, the five books of Moses are followed by 
the "Earlier Prophets," Joshua, Judges, the two 
books of Samuel and the two books of Kings, as 
in English Versions. But after these come what 
the Hebrews called the "Later Prophets" or 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve "minor 
prophets." Then came the poetical books of 
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, 









HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 59 

Lamentations, and Ecdesiastes followed by Es- 
ther, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and their Bible 
closed with the two books of Chronicles. So 
too in some early versions of the New Testament 
the order differed from that in our English Bibles. 
For example, in some ancient Egyptian Versions, 
the Gospel of John was first in order followed by 
Matthew, Mark and Luke. Then came the Pau- 
line epistles and Hebrews, followed by the 
Catholic or general epistles and The Acts, after 
which there were often inserted " lectionaries " 
(lessons to be read in public worship) and lastly 
the book of Revelation. 

BIBLE LIKE A PALACE. 

This study of the Scriptures in the so-called 
"Biblical method" or order, has been compared 
to a palace taking fifteen centuries to rear. The 
architect or builder is God. The books are like 
sixty-six rooms, great and small, in this glorious 
building. Inside, we enter first the five cham- 
bers of historic law and justice. Then come 
twelve chambers of historic records, and the 
saint's gymnasium in the book of Job. After 
which we enter the charming music galleries 
where the sons and daughters of song cheer and 
delight us with celestial harmonies. Then we 
pass to the hall of exchange and trade (the 
books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) beyond 
which is a chamber of sorrow, and Lamenta- 
tions, but on either side near by conservatories of 



60 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

flowers in the love story of Ruth and in the Song 
of Solomon. Then we enter the great halls of 
prophecy seventeen in number, from whence we 
ascend to the second story and are ushered into a 
more modern room four square, on either side of 
which is a full portrait of the Lord of the build- 
ing, and beyond that room is the great work- 
shop, The Acts, and the apostolic chambers 
twenty-one in number. And lastly we gaze in 
amazement at the brilliant lights and shadows of 
that mysterious domed-lit gallery which reveals 
glimpses of the river of life, and the golden 
streets of the New Jerusalem. 

2. THE HISTORIC METHOD. 

The historic method consists in studying the 
Bible in the order in which the several facts are 
believed to have taken place, or the several por- 
tions to have been written. Dr. J. H. Kurtz 
wrote his " sacred history "asa" faithful guide" 
to "friends of the Holy Scriptures" in their 
studies of them according to the historic order. 
He regarded the Bible as a record of the " double 
development" — the original at the creation, and 
the renewed development in redemption, — of the 
Kingdom of God on the earth. His scheme fol- 
lows in the main, the order of the books in our 
English Bibles, except that he places the study 
of the poetical books except Ecclesiastes imme- 
diately after the narrative of Solomon's reign, 
and the study of the prophets is interspersed in 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 61 

their supposed order with the records in the his- 
torical books of Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Ne- 
hemiah. 

Dr.- J. T. Ward, of Westminster Theological 
Seminary, has a Bible Readers' Manual, for the 
study of the Scriptures in a historical and chron- 
ological order, based largely on the arrangement 
of George Townsend, with suggestions from 
Ussher, Prideaux, Lowth, Lardner, Hales, Home, 
Kitto, Robinson and others. He notes the chap- 
ters and verses to be read every morning from 
the Old Testament and every evening from the 
New Testament, the plan taking the student 
through the Bible in one year. 

Dr. C. G. Barth has arranged the Bible in an 
historic order for study in his Bible Commentary 
and urges this method, because he esteems 
chronological reading advantageous as regards 
doctrines as well as history, since they mutually 
throw light, the one upon the other. In his view, 
this is the only way in which light and distinct- 
ness can be gained on the Psalms and the proph- 
ets. Without this mode of study, exposition 
may often be built in the air. A passage in 
Psalms or in the prophets, that otherwise seems 
dark and dead, is made alive, full of light and 
interest in this way. Even history itself is ren- 
dered more graphic, richer, and grander when 
thus interwoven with poetry and prophecy prop- 
erly belonging to its own age. 

Dr. John Hall, in Nelson's Bible Treasury, sug- 



62 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

gests a plan which to some extent combines the 
consecutive with the historic methods, laying the 
chief emphasis on biographies. 

Dr. A. F. Schauffler, in Gateways to the Bible, 
suggests the wise use of a little chart, with a long 
line having five points noted, by A, E, A, S, C, 
which marks periods of one thousand years ac- 
cording to the common chronology. That is, 
from Adam to Enoch is one thousand years, from 
Enoch to Abraham is one thousand years, from 
Abraham to Solomon is one thousand years, and 
from Solomon to Christ is one thousand years. 
Of course, the later corrected dates change these 
periods, but this chart is supposed to answer the 
relative lengths of the periods. In connection 
with this, a succession of four periods of miracles 
is noted, after the creation of man, (i) that of 
Abraham; (2) of Moses; (3) of Elijah and Elisha; 
(4) of Jesus Christ. Thus the important periods 
of Bible history are intended to be impressed 
upon the mind. 

Dean E. T. Bartlett and John P. Peters issued 
an elaborate work entitled, " Scriptures Hebrew 
and Christian/' arranged as an introduction to 
the study of the Bible. The division and order 
of the material in these volumes agree sub- 
stantially with the results of modern advanced 
criticism. They begin with the " Hebrew story " 
from the creation to the exile, culled and com- 
piled from nearly all the Old Testament books. 
Then follows material to which the title "He- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, 63 

brew Literature" is prefixed, comprising pas- 
sages from the poetical books, and large portions 
of the prophecies, and many passages from other 
Old Testament books. The selections close 
with large portions of the Christian Scriptures 
from the gospels to Revelation, the whole ar- 
ranged in the historic order accepted by many 
modern critical scholars. The learned authors 
have also given fresh translations from the orig- 
inal, when in their view such translations would 
throw clearer light on the truth, and have added 
very brief headings to some sections. One aim 
of this system has been to aid young readers to 
gain, "as soon as possible the true point of 
view " and to save them "from the need of un- 
learning in after life that which in their earliest 
years they have been taught to think of as essen- 
tial and vital to the faith." They urge that the 
Bible "must be read historically if we would 
reach down into the depths of its meaning." 
Their aim is to be highly commended, their ex- 
ecution of it is too costly and elaborate, and the 
volumes containing it, have not attained a very 
wide circulation. It is perhaps too learned for 
the "young readers" for whom it was prepared, 
and too "radical" for the adult lay reader. 

There are drawbacks to this plan. It may lead 
the student to regard most of the Bible as tem- 
porary, lowering its significance and authority 
for our age. Truth is eternal; truths in the Bible 
are divine. Though types pass away, the truth 



64 BANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

typified stands forever. To some, therefore, the 
historical system of study would not be the 
most profitable. 

3. THE TOPICAL PLAN OF STUDY. 

The three great themes in the Bible are: God, 
man, and redemption. These are capable of a 
great number of variations, more or less compre- 
hensive of the contents of the Bible. It is, how- 
ever, very difficult to find any simple topical 
plan, which fully covers all the material in the 
Scriptures. Even the best topical text-books do 
not include in their subjects and references all 
the passages or verses in the Bible. 

Some follow the topical order of subjects, 
given in their yearly calendar of church lessons 
and readings from the Scriptures, as those found 
in the prayer-book of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, or in that of the Lutheran church. 

Others follow a scheme of Biblical study based 
upon the doctrines or subjects in the Apostles' 
creed, or in the Nicene creed. A plan of this 
kind is suggested by Dr. Philip Schaff in his 
Christian Catechism. 

Prominent Biblical students have worked out 
schemes for personal use, which have been pub- 
lished and quite widely adopted. R. A. Torrey 
(How to Study the Bible, pp. 60-4) gives a list 
of topics for Bible study, which is suggestive, 
though it is chiefly of doctrines and does not in- 
clude much material from the historical books. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 65 

H. T. Sell (Bible Study by Doctrines) has worked 
out a similar scheme with more full details, 
which many have found helpful. 

D. L. Moody advocates taking up some word 
as "grace," "love," "faith," "hope," "fear," 
"walk," "blessed," "prayer," and the like 
" key- words" as he calls them, which may be 
called a word method. While this is not a very 
comprehensive method, it is exceedingly fruitful 
and suggestive in developing the many-sided 
phases, in which Scripture presents the great 
subjects of which it professes to treat. 

The International Sunday-school Lesson Com- 
mittee also offers a scheme for Biblical study 
largely upon a topical plan, and proposes to take 
the Sunday-schools of the world, following their 
system through the Bible once in every six years. 
This scheme necessarily omits, however, the 
study of large portions of the Scripture, and is 
compelled to concentrate its work upon about 
4,000 only of the upward of 31,000 verses in the 
entire Bible. 

The Church of England Institute outlines a 
similar scheme of study, scarcely more compre- 
hensive of the contents of Scripture than the In- 
ternational scheme. 

MARKING BIBLES. 

Taking some leading word in a passage as the 
key to the important thought and putting a col- 
ored line under it, with what are called "railway 



66 HANDY UELPS Foil BUSY WORKERS. 

connections" that is, references to other texts 
where the same word occurs, is a favorite method 
with many. This plan is fully explained in 
" Hints on Bible Marking" by Mrs. Stephen 
Men/ies. Sometimes it has been carried to such 
extremes of detail as to be very complex, puz- 
zling and cumbersome, having inks of five ox six 
colors, and a multitude o\ symbols almost as 
complicated and bewildering to the ordinary 
student as the Egyptian hieroglyphs. But if 
some simple method is used, it will help you to 
find texts; it will impress their meaning on the 
mind, and by grouping several on the same sub- 
ject together, will bring out the richness of Scrip- 
tural thought, in a way to make the Bible seem a 
new book. Placing a vertical line in the margin 
against a passage or clause like John iii. 16, or 
2 Tim. iii. i6, or Col. iii. 16, or i Cor. iii. 16, will 
enable the reader to find these more readily. To 
put some mark as a cross, to call attention to the 
"unexplored texts" or passages of the Bible is 
also a good method. Take such passages as 
those forbidding women to wear men's clothes, 
and men to wear women's garments, and that 
concerning birds' nests. Dent. xxii. s-7 and Ps. 
civ. 17, or that describing a vessel in a storm, Ps. 
cvii. 28-^0, or the rest of the poor and the rich 
contrasted as in Eccl. v. 12, and putting a mark 
opposite them in the margin, fixes their place 
in mind, and puts them in the proper mental 
" pigeon-hole " for use. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 67 

ANALYSIS OF THE BIBLE. 

Some have arranged the entire Bible according to 
subjects, the various allied subjects being brought 
together into twenty-five or thirty families or 
groups, with proper indexes. Nearly a century 
ago Matthew Talbot a wealthy leather dresser 
of Leeds, England, issued a work of this kind 
called an "Analysis of the Holy Bible." This 
was improved and reissued by Nathaniel West, 
and again by Roswell D. Hitchcock, attaining a 
wide and useful circulation. Another on a simi- 
lar plan has been recently issued. 

" Notes and Suggestions for Bible Readings, " by 
S. R. Briggs and J. H. Elliott have been widely 
used, having reached a circulation, it is said, of 
over 60,000 copies. 

A systematic course of study, arranged upon 
modern scientific methods and intended to cover 
all the material in the Bible in four years, has 
been issued by the American Institute of Sacred 
Literature, now having its headquarters at Hyde 
Park, Chicago, 111. While this course follows in 
part the topical plan, it might more strictly be 
called the literary method, for it treats the sixty- 
six books in the Bible chiefly from the literary 
point of view. 

4. STUDY ONE BOOK. 

When you want to get the best impression of 
a violet, a pink or a rose, you do not look simply 
at a single leaf or petal of the flower, but at the 



68 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

whole flower. So when you want to get the 
best knowledge of any book in the Bible, you 
will study not simply a single text or a paragraph, 
but the entire- book. 

GETTING THE SWEEP. 

James Stalker quotes an interesting sketch of 
the experience of one who had long been trying 
to learn Greek as it is usually taught in the 
schools. He had toiled and tugged away at lines 
of poetry and sentences of prose, slowly digging 
out from lexicon and grammar, the meaning, 
syntax, derivation and etymology of each word, 
getting now and then a bright thought, or a 
finely turned sentence, but with dull drudgery, 
and painful perseverance. One day, he broke 
over all this, wandering into the woods with a 
volume containing the Apology of Socrates, or 
his defence before his judges. He threw himself 
upon the leafy ground, and began to read the 
narration as he would have read a story * in 
English. He caught the drift, or was caught by 
it, though not making out the precise meaning of 
every word, until his soul was aglow with the ir- 
resistible argument, the sublime scene, and the ex- 
alted thought. Greek was no longer the drudg- 
ery of parsing, lexicon hunting and construing, 
but was set with lofty ideas, thrilling stories, and 
sublime pictures. It hid a magnificent literature, 
of which he had heard, but now understood why 
it had been the admiration of the ages. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 69 

READING A BOOK AT A SITTING. 

Similar revelation may come to the mind that 
takes up a book of the Bible in the Revised 
Version or in some paragraphed edition, like 
Scrivener's, and reads a single book through at 
a single sitting. You say this is beyond you. 
There you are wrong. Many have tried it, and 
ever after have rejoiced that they did. Moseley 
H. Williams in "Gateways to the Bible" tells of 
a minister detained at home one Sunday evening, 
who read the entire gospel of John through in 
the Revised Version in an hour and a half, read- 
ing at a very leisurely pace. Another read^the 
whole of the Sermon on the Mount in twenty- 
two minutes, which was a shorter time than he 
usually had taken for sermons preached to his 
own people. Three members of a family read 
the book of Daniel through on a Sunday after- 
noon ; two did it in forty minutes and a third in 
forty-five minutes. Reading Paul's letter to the 
Romans, or that to the Ephesians through at one 
sitting, (which can easily be done), gives the 
student a new view of the unity of the book, the 
cumulative character of the argument, and the 
majestic march of the thought which could never 
be gained from studying single texts, nor from 
reading detached chapters nor from portions of 
the letter. 

So, I say again, get a good paragraph Bible 
like Scrivener's or the new one issued by the Ox- 
ford Press, and read entire books of the Bible 



70 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

through continuously, to get the scope, force, and 
grandeur of the book as a whole, impressed in- 
delibly upon the mind. 

5. STUDY BOOK BY BOOK. 

Having read a single book through rapidly at a 
sitting, during the " quiet hour," take it for more 
thorough study upon some scientific or analytic 
method. You may require a week, a month, or 
many months to complete such a study of a single 
book. The writer has spent two years continuous 
study upon one book, such as the gospel of John 
or the historical book of The Acts, and found the 
interest in his studies constantly increasing. 

Study with pencil in hand; for as more than 
one has said, " I can't remember." The memory 
is like a sieve; the good things it receives drop 
through and when wanted are lost. Make an 
outline of the book for yourself; noting the sub- 
ject or theme, the main divisions under which it 
is treated, and any diversions from it. Mark the 
occasion of these breaks or episodes in the book, 
and the subject of each one, taking note of how 
they probably grew out of the development of 
the main theme of the book, or how related to 
it, and where, and how the writer returns to his 
chief theme after the break or episode. Thus 
make a full analysis of the book. 

Some novel suggestions on this method of 
study are given by A. T. Pierson, "Keys to the 
Word, or Helps to Bible Study." He suggests 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 71 

the "key-word" or subject of each book in the 
Bible, and gives his idea of the chief divisions 
under which the subject is developed. R. A. 
Torrey (How to Study the Bible) has some sug- 
gestions on the study of individual books of the 
Bible, giving a specimen of his mode as applied 
to the First Epistle of Peter, which is very full, 
almost too full of details, for ordinary readers. 

WHEN, WHERE, AND BY WHOM WRITTEN. 

As Dr. James Stalker and many others have 
said, "The best help to the understanding of any 
book of the Bible is a knowledge of the time and 
circumstances in which it was compos 
how it has come down to our times, 
and suggestive information along this 1 
be found in my little treatise, "Our 
Sacred Books." The " Helps" in the vs 
excellent "Teacher's Bibles," issued bye 
lishing houses, also contain valuable aid. Among 
the best known of these are the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Teacher's Bible, Nelson's Illustrated Bible 
Treasury, the International Teacher's Bible, the 
Bagster's, and the Eyre and Spottiswood's Bibles. 
Altogether the best English edition for general 
reading is The New Revised Version with the 
American Committee's renderings issued recently 
by the Oxford University Press. 

KNOW ONE BOOK WELL. 

The Bible is a rich divine library. Like any 
great library, each book must be examined one 



72 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

by one to gain a clear idea of its contents. James 
Hastings, of the Expository Times urges young 
men to know one book well, since that is better 
than to know many books imperfectly. He adds, 
" it is about fifteen years since 1 studied my first 
book of the Bible. Ten years later 1 recom- 
mended this plan to a guild of Bible study, and 
Professor Lumby of Cambridge University joined 
that guild, saying, ' I regard your proposal to 
concentrate the study of your guild upon limited 
portions of the Old and New Testaments as 
likely to be extremely helpful. A little well done 
gives power to advance, and new subjects are ap- 
proached with more confidence.' ' Professor San- 
day gave minute and thorough study to the Gos- 
pel of John, and published some results of his 
study. Then the value of this kind of search be- 
came evident, in the splendid argument he was 
able to make in defence of the authority of that 
gospel. It had been asserted that the gospel was 
written by some unknown John, in the second 
century. But Professor Sanday addressed him- 
self to that question, and pointed out its weak- 
ness, if not absurdity. For from his attentive 
study of the gospel itself, he pointed out touches 
of color, and of detail, and turns of thought and 
expression that could have been written only by 
an eye and ear witness. 

VARIETY IN THE BIBLE. 

Gaussen describes the wonderful variety of the 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 73 

Bible as exhibited in its individual books in these 
vivid words: "As a skilful musician, called to 
execute some masterpiece, puts his lips by turns 
to the mournful flute, the shepherd's reed, the 
mirthful fife, and the war-trumpet, so the Al- 
mighty God, to sound in our ears his eternal 
word, has selected of old the instrument best 
suited to receive successively the breath of his 
spirit. Thus we have in God's great anthem of 
revelation the sublime simplicity of John; the 
argumentative, elliptical, soul-stirring energy of 
Paul, the fervor and solemnity of Peter, the poetic 
grandeur of Isaiah, the lyric moods of David, the 
ingenious and majestic narratives of Moses, the 
sententious and royal wisdom of Solomon. It 
was all this and more — it was Peter, Isaiah, 
Matthew, John, Moses, or Paul; but it was God. 
Such ought to be the word of Jehovah, like Im- 
manuel — full of grace and truth, at once in the 
bosom of God, and in the heart of man, exalted 
yet humble, imposing yet familiar, God and 
man " — yes, God with man. 

A BOOK OF BEGINNINGS. 

Take up a single book, as Genesis. The title 
comes from the Greek version and signifies 
" origin, M or "beginning." And a close exami- 
nation of this opening treatise soon shows that it 
is a book of "beginnings." It gives an account 
of the beginning of the universe, then of the be- 
ginning of life on the earth ending with accounts 



74 HAXDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

of the beginning of the race of man. He was 
made innocent It is common to suppose that 
this innocence lasted for a short period only. 
But it accords better with the analogy of God's 
later dealing with the race, to believe that it was 
an indefinitely long period — that man continued 
in a state of innocence for a long time. Then 
came disobedience, described in theological lan- 
guage as the " fall." Such a study may seriously 
jar our preconceived opinions and familiar set 
phrases, if not make havoc of some of them. 
But sincere minds seek truth, the truth in the 
Bible. 

I am not aware of any text in the Bible which 
designates the disobedience of Eve and Adam as 
"the fall," or a "fall of Adam." That is not a 
Biblical name for it. The Lord Jesus speaks of 
the "fall" of Satan out of heaven, Luke x. 18, 
r. v.; and Paul refers to the stumbling of the 
Israelites as a "fall," Rom. xi. n; and, to a 
"fall "of the over-confident, i Cor. x. 12; but 
refers to the "disobedience," "transgression," 
and "sin" of Adam: "For as through the one 
man's disobedience the many were made sin- 
ners, even so through the obedience of the one 
shall the many be made righteous." " But where 
sin abounded, grace did abound more exceed- 
ingly." Rom. v. 19, 20, r. v. Compare also 
Rom. v. 12, 14. The phrase "fall of Adam" is 
not therefore Biblical, but theological. 

Then the book of Genesis notes a new "begin- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 75 

ning" under a promise of redemption. But the 
whole race grew so sinful and corrupt that as an 
act of mercy and to protect the future millions of 
souls, a great flood overwhelmed all save Noah 
and his family, who were obedient to God. 
With this family a new beginning was again 
made, with a renewal of the promise of redemp- 
tion. Again the race grew sinful, proud and 
defiant, building a mighty tower. They were 
spared, but scattered through a confusion of 
their speech. Still men continued to stray from 
their Creator. So God called Abram out of Ui% 
to become the father of a chosen people, a nation 
that should witness for him. Thus again, a new 
beginning was made in the redemption of the 
human race through a chosen family. But this 
family required an added training among edu- 
cated and cultured people in Egypt, to fit them 
to witness intelligently for God. So the book of 
Genesis closes with the story of Joseph, one of 
this family, and notes his brilliant and successful 
reign as prime minister under a great Pharaoh in 
Egypt, the foremost land in civilization in that 
age. This family added to the culture of Assyria, 
all the wisdom of the Egyptians. 

Genesis therefore under the theme "begin- 
nings," has these divisions: 

The "beginnings" — 

i. Of the universe. 

2. Of life on the earth. 

3. Of man in Eden, innocent. 



76 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBEEBS. 

4. Of man sinful, under the promise. 

5. After the flood under a covenant. 

6. Of Abram of Chaldea, father of his people. 

7. The education of this nation in Egypt. 
This merely suggests what may be done on 

this plan of study book by book. Each book of 
the Bible may be taken up, and the outline or 
analysis made by the reader, adapting it to his 
own purpose, in evangelistic or Christian work. 

THE BIBLE FITS ALL CASES. 

This plan will likewise aid you in quickly call- 
ing up the passage and expression suited to the 
many-sided characters with which you may deal 
in religious experience. Thus as Dr. James Ham- 
ilton eloquently says, "For the pensive, there is 
the dirge of Jeremiah and the cloud-shadowed 
drama of Job. For the sanguine and hopeful 
there sounds the blithe' voice and there beats the 
warm pulse of the old Galilaean Peter. And for 
the calm, the contemplative, the peaceful, loving, 
there spreads like a molten melody . . . the 
page of John the Divine. The most homely may 
find the matter of fact, the unvarnished wisdom 
and plain sens'e ... in James' blunt reason- 
ings; and the most heroic can ask no higher 
standard, no loftier feats, no consecration more 
intense, no spirituality more ethereal, than they 
will find in the Pauline epistles. Those who love 
the sparkling aphorism and the sagacious para- 
dox are provided with convenient food in the 



ROW TO STUDY THE BIBDE. 77 

Proverbs; and for those whose poetic fancy 
• craves a banquet more sublime, there is the dew 
of Hermon, and Bozrah's red wine, the tender 
freshness of pastoral hymns, and the purple tu- 
mult of triumphal psalms." 

6. STUDY GROUPS OF BOOKS. 

It has become quite a favorite method with the 
modern student to take up groups of writings or 
books in the Bible and to study them minutely as 
to their contents and the relations of the several 
portions. Thus the one portion is made to throw 
strong light upon another portion. For example, 
the writings of John, that is, his Gospel, three 
epistles, and the Revelation have been grouped 
together as the subject of prolonged careful 
study. Again The Acts and the epistles of Paul 
have been subjected to the most searching scru- 
tiny, to see how they fitted, the one into the 
other. More widely still has been the study of 
the first three gospels, to discover the harmonies 
and diversities in that many-sided picture of the 
work and of the teaching of the Lord Jesus. A 
multitude of " harmonies " has been con- 
structed, some weaving the three gospels into 
one continuous narrative, some arranging them 
side by side in parallel histories. Newcome, 
Robinson, Gardiner, Clark, Strong, Eadie, and 
Stevens and Burton are some of the scholars 
who have prepared helpful works of this kind on 
the gospels. Conybeare and Howson have ar- 



78 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

ranged the Pauline epistles in an orderly chrono- 
logical manner, and fitted them severally into 
their supposed historic place in the apostolic 
mission. More recently Stevens has done the 
same within a smaller compass, giving only the 
Bible text set in its order. 

Dr. James Stalker suggests that this method of 
study is advantageous, not only because it en- 
ables us to see how one book of the group casts 
light upon another, but that it has a special ch&rm 
in that it aids us to perceive the growth of reve- 
lation. It shows us that there was in these books 
a gradual unfolding of the truth. Each successive 
writer, in some measure became the heir of all 
that had preceded him. Thus he would reach 
forward to higher attainments, until in the ful- 
ness of time the world was prepared for the 
coming of the Light, the Son of God. 

In the Old Testament we may recognize four 
groups: (i) The law, — five books; (2) the his- 
torical books; (3) poetical books;' (4) prophetical 
books. In the New Testament are: (1) four gos- 
pels; (2) historical book, Acts; (3) the epistles; 
(4) prophetical book, Revelation. There are many 
other ways of grouping the books as by authors, 
by subjects, by periods, and the like, but the one 
indicated, is the most common, and that with 
which ordinary readers are most familiar. 

7. THE LITERARY METHOD OF STUDY. 

The Bible is a "literature smothered by rev- 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 79 

erence," says Professor Richard G. Moulton. 
But there is one form of literature in the Bible 
which even this extreme reverence has not hid- 
den; has rather preserved it and made it promi- 
nent. "Philosophy and oratory belong to all 
literatures," says Moulton (Bible as Literature) ; 
" but the Bible has all to itself the department of 
prophecy. This gathers into one distinct literary 
form sermons and political speeches; burdens on 
hostile peoples that suggest the satires of secular 
literature; the mystic poetry of visions and dra- 
matic dialogues like Micah's controversy before 
the mountains, or Jeremiah's intercession in a 
season of drought; while all ordinary literary 
forms are transcended when Joel and Isaiah pre- 
sent advancing judgment in a spiritual drama 
that has all space for its stage and all time for 
the period of its action." Modern scholars rev- 
erently declare that they find in their experience 
that a wider study of the literary forms of the 
Bible is a sure way of deepening its spiritual 
power over the mind. 

WHAT LITERARY STUDY ATTEMPTS. 

In the widest sense the literary study of the 
Bible would include all types of study popularly 
termed higher criticism and historical analysis. 
But in the stricter sense it is a study of the con- 
tents of Scripture as we have it, and the literary 
form of that material. It does not attempt to 
investigate how nor when it came into its present 



80 



HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 



form. It takes the material as we have it, and 
tries to understand it. 

The literary study attempts to mark off and 
distinguish one form of literary composition from 
another, as these appear in the Bible, and to give 
some account of the leading forms, as a key to 
the best understanding of the contents. 

Every one recognizes history, poetry, prophecy, 
addresses and aphorisms in the Bible; but not 
many have so carefully studied them as to be 
able to distinguish these forms from one another. 
Much less would they perceive the vast vantage 
ground this knowledge would give for a clearer 
understanding of the true sense of the sacred text. 

Few have any idea of the variety as well as 
beauty of literary forms to be found in Scripture. 
Broadly, these may be indicated by the following 
table: 

'Primitive (Genesis). 

Legal (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers). 
History. < Civil (Joshua to 2 Chronicles). 

Ecclesiastical (Ezra, Nehemiah, etc.). 
^Mission (The Acts). 

r Lyric (Psalms and Songs). 
Dramatic (Job and Song of Songs). 
Poetry. { Elegiac (Lamentations). 

Gnomic, i. e., axioms and aphorisms 
(Proverbs and Ecclesiastes). 

r In vision (Ezekiel, and Daniel in 

^ Historic (the sixteen Old Testament 
prophetical books and Revelation). 









Epistles. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 81 

Biography. { (Ruth, Esther and the Gospels). 

Orations. <j Prose and Poetical (Deuteronomy). 

r Pastoral (i and 2. Timothy, Titus). 
Personal (Philemon, 3 John). 
General (the other sixteen in the 
New Testament). 

This classification is imperfect, since in the 
books of prophecy there are large sections which 
are poetical. Moreover the gospels are not strictly 
biographical, though much of their contents may 
be so designated. Yet they also contain sermons 
and teachings, as parables and proverbs. The 
foregoing outline is, however, a fair elementary 
scheme with which one might begin the literary 
study of the Bible. 

Preachers and evangelistic workers have lost 
much in their influence upon the intellectual 
classes, by not more frequently pointing out the 
high literary character of the Bible. It is the 
habit of some quite cultured people, to look upon 
the Holy Scriptures as excellent reading for pious 
women and good little children, but as contain- 
ing nothing worthy of the attention of an edu- 
cated and literary taste. 

EVIL OF CHAPTER AND VERSE DIVISIONS.. 

This view of the Bible by certain intellectual 
people is partly due to the vicious modern method 
of breaking up the contents of the Bible into chap- 
ters and verses, which destroys the beauty and 
charm of its literary forms, and hinders the proper 



82 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

understanding of the sense. Professor Moulton 
strongly affirms, "The Bible is the worst printed 
book in the world. No other monument of an- 
cient or modern literature suffers the fate of being 
put before us in a form that makes it impossible, 
without strong effort and considerable training, 
to take in the elements of literary structure which 
in other books are conveyed directly to the eye 
in a manner impossible to mistake." He warmly 
advocates a plan of printing the Bible which will 
at once reveal to the eye the literary structure of 
every portion of Scripture. 

THE REVISED VERSION. 

In the study of the Bible upon this method, the 
chapter and verse divisions must be wholly dis- 
regarded. It is better therefore, to use the Re- 
vised Version, or some good paragraph edition 
of the Common Version. This should note some 
distinction between prose and poetry, and should 
mark by a new paragraph, where the writer ends 
one point, and takes up another in his work. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE. 

" For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are • • , 
my thoughts than your thoughts." — Isaiah. 

Lest some may think I am an enthusiast or 
a partial critic in the high estimate of the Bible as 
literature, I think it best to cite the views of a 
few great men in respect to the character and 
kind of literature in the Bible. 

John Locke, a great metaphysician and one of 
the most learned men of his age, said, "The 
Scriptures have God for their author, eternity for 
their object, and truth without any mixture of 
error for their subject matter. " He strongly 
urges # a study of the knowledge of God, which 
he says, "the words of Revelation display to 
mankind in characters so large and visible that 
those who are not quite blind, may in them read, 
and see the first principles and most necessary 
parts, . . . and penetrate into those infinite 
depths filled with the treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge." 

Robert Boyle, distinguished for his learning, 
declares, "I use the Scriptures not as an arsenal 
to be resorted to for arms and weapons, but as a 
matchless temple, where I delight to contemplate 

(83) 



84 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

the beauty, the symmetry and the magnificence 
of the structure, and to increase my awe and 
excite my devotion to the Deity there preached 
and adored." And he calls the Bible, "that 
matchless book." 

Sir William Jones has been uniformly counted 
among the brightest ornaments of English literary 
history. In a calm, judicial spirit he declares, "I 
have regularly and attentively read the Holy 
Scriptures, and am of opinion that this volume, 
independent of its divine origin, contains more 
sublimity and beauty, more pure morality, more 
important history, and finer strains of poetry and 
eloquence, than can be collected from all other 
books in whatever language or age they may 
have been composed." 

Sir Isaac Newton so admired the Sacred Scrip- 
tures that he spent days in their study, saying, 
"I count the Scriptures of God to be the most 
sublime philosophy. I find more sure m^rks of 
authenticity in the Bible, than in any profane 
history whatever." 

Alexander Pope was an acute critic, as well as 
poet, as his reviewers discovered to their dis- 
may. He affirms "The pure and noble, the 
graceful and dignified simplicity of language is 
nowhere in such perfection as in the Scriptures 
and Homer. The whole book of Job, with re- 
gard to sublimity of thought and morality, ex- 
ceeds beyond all comparison the most noble 
parts of Homer." 



THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE. 85 

J. J. Rousseau, though a skeptic is constrained 
to confess, " The majesty of the Scriptures strikes 
me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel 
hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the works 
of our philosophers with all their pomp of dic- 
tion; how mean, how contemptible are they com- 
pared with the Scripture! Is it possible that a 
book at once so simple and sublime should be 
merely the work of man ? . . . Socrates, in 
receiving the cup of poison, blessed indeed the 
weeping executioner who administered it; but 
Jesus in the midst of excruciating tortures prayed 
for his merciless tormentors. Yes, if the life and 
death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and 
death of Jesus are those of a God. . . . The 
Jewish authors were incapable of the diction and 
strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel: 
the marks of whose truth are so striking and in- 
imitable that the inventor would be a more as- 
tonishing character than the hero." 

John Milton eloquently declares, "There are 
no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no 
orations equal to those of the prophets, and no 
politics like those the Scriptures teach." 

Joseph Addison was one of the most eminent 
celebrities in 'English literature, a master in style 
and in the English classics, and a loving student 
of the Bible. His finest literary productions are 
the hymns inspired by reading the Scriptures, 
notably his fine paraphrase of the nineteenth 
Psalm : 



86 EAXDY HELPS FOR BUSY WOBEEBS. 

" The spacious firmament on high, 
With all the blue ethereal sky, 
And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 
Their great Original proclaim, 
The unwearied sun, from day to day, 
Doth his Creator's power display, 
And publishes to every land, 
The work of an Almighty hand." 

Dr. C. P. Krauth finely says of our Common 
Version: 

"It secured the enthusiastic approval of the 
cautious scholar, and won the artless love of the 
people. ... It glorified the tongue of the 
worshipper in glorifying God, and by the inspira- 
tion indwelling in it, and the inspiration it has 
imparted, has created English literature. [So 
Luther's Version molded German literature. — e. 
w. R.] When to him who has been caught in 
the snare of unbelief, or drawn by the lure of 
false belief, every other chord of the old music 
wakes only repugnant memories, its words have 
stolen in, too strong to be beaten back, too sweet 
to be renounced, once more the thunder of God's 
power, the pulsation of God's heart. . . . 
Its words are nearer to men than their own, and 
it gives articulation to groanings, which but for 
it could not be uttered. It has lifted the living 
world to the solemn fixedness of those old heav- 
enly thoughts and feelings, instead of dragging 
them by low, secular phrase out of their high and 
holy thrones, down to the dust of the shifting 



THE BIBLE AS LITER A TUBE. 87 

present, or leaving them dim and dreary behind 
the fog of pedantry. It has fought against the 
relentless tendency of time to change language, 
and has won all the great fields; words have 
dropped away, or have deserted their meaning, 
as soldiers are lost even by the side which con- 
quers; but the great body of its ancient but not 
antiquated forms, among the sweetest and the 
highest speech beneath the voices of the upper 
world, remains intact and victorious." 

Dr. F. W. Faber, though a Romanist, elo- 
quently speaks of the uncommon beauty and 
marvelous English of our common version, and 
adds this fine tribute to its literary excellency: 

"It lives on the ear, like the music that can 
never be forgotten, like the sound of church 
bells, which the convert hardly knows how he 
can forego. Its felicities often seem to be almost 
things rather than words. It is part of the na- 
tional mind, and the anchor of national serious- 
ness. Nay, it is worshipped with a positive 
idolatry, in extenuation of whose grotesque 
fanaticism its intrinsic beauty pleads availingly 
with the man of letters and the scholar. The 
memory of the dead passes into it. The potent 
traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its 
verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of 
man are hid beneath its words. It is the repre- 
sentative of his best moments, and all that there 
has been about him of soft and gentle, and pure 
and penitent and good, speaks to him forever out 



88 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

of his Protestant Bible. It is the sacred thing 
which doubt has never dimmed, and controversy 
never soiled." 

Of its power to enlighten the soul, arfother 
Romanist testifies. He sat down to. read the 
Bible an hour each evening with his wife. In a 
few evenings, he stopped in his reading, and ex- 
claimed, "Wife if this book is true, we are 
wrong/' He read on a few evenings more, and 
in alarm declared, " Wife, if this book is true, we 
are lost." Still deeply anxious and unable to give 
up the book, he kept on reading for another 
week, and then joyfully exclaimed, "Wife, if this 
book is true, we may be saved." In a few days, 
taught by the Spirit of God, who guided him 
into the truth, the reader and his wife rejoiced in 
salvation through Jesus Christ revealed unto them 
in the Scriptures. 

The Bible is our Father's letters to us from 
home. "Mother," said a little girl, "what makes 
you so fond of reading the Bible?" "Let me 
ask you a question," replied the mother. 
"When you came home from the country last 
week, you brought back a bundle of letters, 
creased, torn, worn, thumb-marked and much 
crumpled. Why were they so worn and 
crumpled?" "Oh, because I read them so 
often, and so carefully. I loved to read them. 
They were letters from home! They were writ- 
ten by father, and used to tell me of you, and of 
my brothers and sisters; what you were all doing, 



THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE. 89 

and what was going on at home." "Well that 
is why I love to read the Bible, dear. It is my 
letter from my Father in heaven, and tells me 
about that home, and what brothers and sisters 
may be doing there, and how glad he and they 
will be to welcome me to it. And all this is in 
sugh charming words, such beautiful language, 
in such lofty thought, and in such a loving spirit, 
that I never tire of reading the Bible." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MEMORIZING SCRIPTURE. 
" Thy word have I laid up in mine heart." — Psalmist, R. V. 

The Christian worker ought to have the 
great texts, and the great passages of the Bible 
fixed in his mind, ready at instant call. Not 
only should the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com- 
mandments, and the Twenty-third Psalm be 
stored in the memory, but many Key-texts, and 
also the important passages upon great Bible 
themes. 

In retaining leading texts, some mechanical 
plan may be helpful. For example, take seven 
great Key-texts found in iii. 16 of different 
books: 

The great gift, " For God so loved the world," 
etc. John iii. 16. # 

The great inspiration, "All scripture is given 
by inspiration of God." 2 Tim. iii. 16. 

The holy temple, "Know ye not that ye are 
the temple of God?" 1 Cor. iii. 16. 

The rich indwelling, "Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly in all wisdom." Col. iii. 16. 

The great mystery, "And without controversy 
great is the mystery of godliness." 1 Tim. iii. 16. 

The great sacrifice, "Hereby perceive we the 

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MEMORIZING SCRIPTURE. 91 

love of God, because he laid down his life for 
us." i John iii. 16. 

The great benediction, "Now the Lord of 
peace himself give you peace, at all times, in all 
ways. The Lord be with you all." 2 Thess. iii. 
16, R. v. 

Some of the many lofty themes and majestic 
passages of Scripture ought to be fixed in the. 
memory. Many of these have a sublimity of 
thought, a smoothness of diction and a sweet- 
ness of cadence, that linger on the ear, and run 
in the mind for days and days together. 

There are many that have become universal 
favorites, cheering the desponding, guiding the 
erring, soothing the sorrowing, giving hope to 
the dying. A few may be mentioned: 

The beatitudes and sermon on the mount. 
Matt. v. to vii. 

The three shepherd chapters of the Bible. 
Psalm xxiii. ; John x. ; Ezekiel xxxiv. 

The great parables of the lost — found. Luke xv. 

The consecration chapter. Rom. xii. 

The heroes of faith. Heb. xi. 

The divine Comforter. John xiv. 

The divine friendship. John xv. 

The great intercession. John xvii. 

The New Testament psalm of love. 1 Cor. xiii. 

The resurrection chapter. 1 Cor. xv. 

The great invitation. Isaiah lv. 

The great restoration. Isaiah lxv. 

And of the Psalms there are many especially: 



92 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WORKERS. 

The blessedness of the godly. Psalm i. 

God glorified by his works. Psalms viii. and 
xix. 

The shepherd psalm. Psalm xxiii. 

The great penitential psalm. Psalm li. 

The mourner's prayer. Psalm xc. 

The psalms of thanksgiving. Psalms ciii. and 
evil. 

The hallelujah psalms. Psalms cxlvi. to cl 

There are many other passages that have been 
very precious to noble souls in all ages, as the 
prayer of Habakkuk, the Song of Hezekiah, 
David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan, Solo- 
mon's prayer of Dedication, and John's Vision of 
New Jerusalem. 

Fixing passages like these in the mind will 
give the Christian worker confidence and self- 
possession, and a ready command of apt Scrip- 
ture thoughts and words. But better than that, it 
will give his entire speech that sweet savor of 
grace, which the Holy Spirit may effectively use 
to win souls to a nobler spiritual life. 



CHAPTER IX. 

GATHERING ILLUSTRATIONS. 

" A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of 
silver." — Solomon, r. v. 

Illustrations are like windows, to let in the 
light on the truth. An explanation, however, 
accurate without an illustration is a house with- 
out a window. How dreary and dismal would 
a home be, if built of great dark walls with no 
opening for the light! No matter how precious 
the stones, nor how fine the enamel on the 
bricks, if the walls were solid and dark without 
a window, the palace would be a prison, rather 
than a home. 

windows to let in light. 

So similes, parables, -metaphors, and allegor- 
ies light up the truth. For, to illustrate means 
literally, "to brighten with light." When the 
closest reasoning, with the best arguments, and 
the most rigid logic cause the listener to grow in- 
attentive, and to count your talk "prosy" and 
"dry," if you put in an apt illustration, the face 
will quickly light up, the eyes brighten and the 
person will be alert with interest and expecta- 
tion. 

Gather illustrations of the gospel message from 

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94 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

every source. Oriental customs, modern inven- 
tions, discoveries in science, facts in natural his- 
tory, in missions, in ancient and modern history, 
but especially events in daily life are fruitful 
fields from which to glean stories, anecdotes and 
metaphors to illustrate divine truth. Study sim- 
plicity and brevity in illustration. Notice how 
the parables of Jesus grasped the most familiar 
everyday things of common life, and made them 
throw bright lights upon spiritual truths. 

"The works of God are the shepherd's calen- 
dar and the ploughman's alphabet." for they il- 
lustrate his word. "The world below me is a 
looking-glass in which I may see the world 
above," wrote a wise man. Houses that are all 
windows, are almost as objectionable, as those 
that are all brick and stone. So a talk that is all 
stories and illustrations is as wearisome and 
nauseating as the obscure prophecy of Cassandra 
of which the author Lycophron declared he had 
never found any one who could understand it, 
and when he did, he would hang himself on the 
next tree. As no one ever could discover the 
meaning of the poem, the author was never com- 
pelled so to disgrace any tree. Is there not some 
modern literature, on which the authors might 
safely risk a similar resolution ? 

I. LET ILLUSTRATIONS ILLUSTRATE. 

To do this, you must first have something to 
illustrate. You have a truth to make clear. Be 



GATHERING ILLUSTRATIONS. 95 

sure your illustration throws light upon it; do 
not put the illustration so that it covers and con- 
ceals the truth. You wish to show the folly of 
the sinner opposing Christ. 

THE SWORDFISH. 

There is a curious fish with a long bony beak, 
which is very fierce in attacking whatever it 
finds in its way. This swordfish in its fury, 
dashes at a great ship with such violence as to 
pierce its timbers with its sword beak. But 
what is the result ? The silly fish is killed out- 
right by the force of the blow, while the ship 
sails on just 'as before unharmed by the rage of 
the foolish fish! Thus the sinner who like Saul 
opposes Christ, works simply his own destruc- 
tion. 

THOMAS OLIVERS. 

You wish to show that a changed heart pro- 
duces a changed life. You mention how Zac- 
cheus gave half his goods to feed the poor, 
and restored to any he had defrauded fourfold. 
And the converted magicians of Ephesus, made a 
public bonfire of their costly but bad books in 
proof of their sincerity. So Thomas Olivers, au- 
thor of the beautiful hymn 

" Lo, he comes in clouds descending," 

was a wicked, dishonest young man. When 
he became a Christian, as soon as he had prop- 
erty, he got a horse, visited every person whom 



96 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

he had defrauded, paid every farthing with in- 
terest and begged pardon of them for the wrong 
he had done. 

2. LET ILLUSTRATIONS BEFIT THE TRUTH. 

Windows are not for ornament so much as 
for light. So illustrations are not to surprise but 
to inform the hearer. A young and enthusiastic 
theologue once declared to his fellows, that he 
hoped "every student might be bold to sound 
the gospel trumpet with such a clear and certain 
sound that the blind might see." It would re- 
quire a terrific trumpet blast for any one with 
good eyes to see it; we could hardly expect the 
blind to do it! A. certain famous English critic 
was praising a sermon by the Dean of Chichester, 
and wrote thus: " The Dean seized the oppor- 
tunity to smite the Ritualists hip and.thigh with 
great volubility and vivacity.' 1 Now Samson 
smote a thousand of his enemies with the jaw- 
bone of an ass, but it must be more remarkable 
to be able to smite one's opponents with volu- 
bility ! 

There is a certain dignity and propriety, but not 
stiffness nor primness, which befits sacred truth, 
and should characterize illustrations of it. Those 
taken from Scripture will surely not offend the 
finest taste. If you wished to impress the golden 
rule: "As ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye also to them likewise," the parable of the 
Good Samaritan could be used effectively. 



GATHERING ILLUSTRATIONS. 97 

DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 

The Duke of Wellington was urged by his 
steward to buy a farm next to his estate, and he 
assented. When the purchase was made the 
steward congratulated him on the bargain, for 
the seller was in difficulty and forced to sell. 

"What do you mean by a bargain ?" asked 
the Duke. 

The steward replied, "My Lord, the farm was 
valued at £\, ioo, and we got it for ^800. " 

" In that case," said the Duke, "you will take 
the other ^300 to the late owner, and do not 
talk to me of that kind of a bargain again." 

3. ILLUSTRATIONS MAY FIX ATTENTION. 

An old shipbuilder said, "When I go to hear 
most ministers preach, I can plan out a ship from 
stem to stern, but when I go to hear Whitefield I 
cannot even lay the keel." He gained and fixed 
the attention at once. Some cannot do this, and 
resort to anecdotes to make their hearers listen. 

But beware how you arouse dull hearers. 
You may find it a dear awakening. A preacher 
once discovered that all his congregation had 
gone to sleep under his preaching, except one 
poor idiot. So he stopped to rebuke them, " See 
now, you are all asleep except poor Jock the 
idiot." The congregation quickly awakened and 
were convulsed by the retort of Jock, who re- 
plied: " And if I had not been an idiot, I should 
have been asleep too." 



98 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 
THOMAS ADAMS AND THE SERVANT. 

Referring to the indifference of persons to hear 
truth for themselves, the old Puritan Thomas 
Adams tells of a servant coming from church, 
loud in his praises of the sermon to his master. 
" And what was the text?" asked the master. 
"Really," quoth the servant, "it was begun be- 
fore I got in." "What, then was his conclu- 
sion?" "Surely," replied the servant, again, 
"I came out before it was done." "But what 
said he in the midst ? " queried the master. " In- 
deed, I was asleep in the midst," was his an- 
swer. "So many crowd to get into church, 
but have no room for the sermon to get into 
them," quaintly added Adams. 

Front the same old writer comes a witty story 
about anger and a hot temper. It has been re- 
coined and recently put in circulation anew, 
though it is more than two hundred years old. 
A young husband frankly told his bride that she 
might regret her rash step in marrying him, for 
he had one dreadfully bad fault — he was always 
getting angry without cause. "Oh," the bride 
wittily replied, "I will quickly cure you of that, 
for I shall daily give you cause enough." 

Old Jeremy Taylor is as full of classical anec- 
dotes and allusions as an egg of meat. Old 
Thomas Brooks scatters metaphors through his 
sermons like dust of gold. The late Charles 
Spurgeon always took special delight in reading 



GATHERING ILLUSTRATIONS. 99 

him, for the suggestive thought and bright illus- 
trations he found in Brooks. 

4. ILLUSTRATIONS HELP TO GRASP THE TRUTH. 

A truth may be difficult to make clear. Spir- 
itual truth is commonly hard for the worldly to 
grasp. Nicodemus though the teacher of religion 
at Jerusalem, could not understand the doctrine 
of the new birth. He was confused over the 
fact and how it could be. So Jesus compels 
Nicodemus to separate the fact of the new birth 
from the process, by the common illustration of 
the wind. He knew the wind blew; but he 
could not tell whence it came, nor whither it 
went. So he might accept the fact of the new 
birth, though he could not understand the how. 

If God pardons and puts away our sin, then 
it is sometimes hard for men to see what they 
have lost by late repentance. Why are they not 
just as if they had been godly from childhood. 

NAILS IN A TREE. 

A father is said to have found this same diffi- 
culty, and hit upon an effective way of removing 
it. He bade his son go out and drive a lot of nails 
into a good sized tree in the yard. The next day 
or two he bid him pull all the nails carefully out. 
Then he went out with the lad, and said, ''You 
see the nails are all out; is not the tree just as 
well off as before?" "Oh no," says the lad, "all 
the holes are left as wounds in the tree." " Well, 



100 HANDY HELPS FOE BUSY WORKERS. 

perhaps they will disappear in time." So they 
waited several years. The tree grew thrifty: the 
nail-wounds were all overgrown. But when at 
last the tree was cut down the scars were found 
covering the trunk where the nails had been. 
So the scars of sin mar the character though God 
has forgiven them, and blotted them all out of 
his book. It is well to repent in adult life; it is 
better to begin a godly life in early childhood. 

ERSKINE AND THE LADY HEARER. 

To impress the importance of going to wor- 
ship in a right spirit, it is said a lady attended a 
communion conducted by a minister unknown to 
her and greatly enjoyed the service. Asking who 
he was, she was informed that he was the noted 
Ebenezer Erskine. Again she went to hear him, 
but with little profit, or interest. So she related 
her experience to Mr. Erskine. to explain. "Ah," 
said he, "the first Sabbath you came to meet the 
Lord Jesus, and you had the blessing: the next 
Sabbath you came to hear Mr. Erskine. and you 
had no blessing,, and had no right to expect one." 

THE AUCTION OF A SOUL. 

If you wished to fix attention and bring the 
hesitating to a decision, the "Auction of a Soul" 
by the noted Rowland Hill might be used. Mr. 
Hill was preaching in the Moorfields, London, 
when Lady Anne Erskine's carriage passed that 
way. Seeing the crowd, and learning that Row- 



GATHERING ILLUSTRATIONS. 101 

land Hill was preaching, she had a curiosity to 
hear him, and had her carriage driven near the 
stand. The splendor of her equipage turned the 
attention of the people from the sermon. 

Rowland Hill noticed this, and hastened to use 
it to bring the audience back to the truth. Rais- 
ing his voice, he cried: "I bespeak your atten- 
tion for a moment to an auction sale now going 
on. The soul of this lady in her splendid equi- 
page is for sale, and I hear three bidders. 

"How much do you bid? Hark, the World 
bids — what do you bid ? ' I will give riches, 
honor and pleasure/ She is worth more than 
that: for she will live when riches, honor, and 
pleasure have passed away. 

" Who bids next ? Satan ? Well, what is your 
bid. ' I will give the glory of the kingdoms of 
this world/ That is not enough; for her soul 
will live after the glory of the world has vanished 
like the shadows of the night before the majestic 
light of the king of day. 

" But, hark, I hear another bidder. Who is he ? 
Ah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what do you 
bid? 'I give grace here, and glory hereafter, 
an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and that 
fadeth not away — eternal life/" 

Turning to the splendid equipage, Mr. Hill ex- 
claimed in his finest pathos, "Madam, Madam, 
which shall have your soul ? Remember Jesus 
died to rescue you. All heaven and earth wit- 
nessed the great price he paid on the cross. The 



102 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 



Son of God bids for your soul! Can you: dare 
you object?" 

This appeal, it is said, was blessed to her soul. 
She became associated with Lady Huntingdon in 
the blessed work of winning other souls to the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 



CHAPTER X. 

METHODS OF WORK. 

" I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means 
save some." — Paul, r. v. 

Of fourteen hundred millions of human faces 
now on the globe, it is said, there are no two 
faces alike. This marvellous variety of expres- 
sion in "the human face, divine," is an index of 
the almost endless variety in human minds. 
Every mind must be treated according to its na- 
ture; the truth should be fitted to the peculiar 
structure of each soul. There will then, result 
an almost endless variety of methods. It might 
seem hopeless, at first sight, to suggest ways 
that would be helpful. Yet as the millions of 
faces can be grouped into great racial, families, 
resembling one another, so the wider mental 
variations can be brought into groups of similar 
types, and thus suggestive methods of bringing 
religious truth to them may be helpful along the 
broad lines of Christian work. 

These methods I may note under two divisions: 
I. The classes to be reached: II. The means of 
reaching them. 

I. Under the classes to be reached, only a few 
can be mentioned: 

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104 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 
I. THE SCOFFER AND SKEPTIC. 

It is not worth while to be drawn into an 
argument with these classes. They feed on dis- 
cussion, and delight in a battle of words. They 
relish debate as an athlete does exercise. It is 
one of their regular pastimes to have this kind 
of mental gymnastics. You will make little im- 
pression upon them by logic or elaborate reason- 
ings. 

An example of a godly life, is one of the most 
affective ways of reaching these classes. Lord 
Peterborough, famed for wit rather than religion, 
was lodged for a time with Fenelon, and was so 
charmed by the piety and beautiful character of 
his companion, that he confessed to him at part- 
ing, "If I stay here any longer, 1 shall become a 
Christian in spite of myself." 

Sometimes a single remark, incidentally made, 
may leave a deep impression. A young lady 
meeting a frivolous friend in the street who had 
repulsed every effort, simply said, " I am praying 
for you.*' The words were quietly and prayer- 
fully spoken, but they led the young man to 
think that he ought to pray for himself, and soon 
after he confessed Christ. 

Some have been blessed by using Scripture in 
this way: those who trifle with religious things 
commonly reply, this matter is foolishness to me. 
"Well, that is just what the Bible says. The 
Bible says it is foolishness to them that are per- 
ishing." The person looks up, with some curi- 



METHODS OF WORK. 105 

osity. "What is that?" Then add, "You 
were just saying that all this coming to Christ 
is foolishness to you, and that is just what the 
Bible says it would be." Then the person won- 
ders how the Bible should say that, and you 
turn to i Cor. ii. 14, and read, "But the natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: 
for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned." 

When a French revolutionist declared to the 
peasants, " 1 will have all your steeples pulled 
down, that you may no longer have any object 
by which you may be reminded of your old 
superstitious worship," they replied, "But you 
will be compelled to leave us the stars of heaven." 

A doubter once accosted Alex. J. Harrison, 
saying, that he did not know whether there was a 
God or not, but thought it higher morality to think 
there was no God. Mr. Harrison drew out the 
man's experience. The unbelief was the result 
of his fear of death, and his praying to have that 
fear removed. Finding that the fear remained, 
he had rushed to the other extreme that God did 
not care, or that there was no God. 

Mr. Harrison said, " put aside all belief in God 
now for a moment. You believe in doing 
right?" "Oh, yes." "You would do that, 
whether paid for it or not ? You would not say, 
I will be honest if honesty pays, or just if justice 
brings comfort, or truthful if it is more profitable 



106 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

than lying?" "No, I would not be a man and 
say that." "You would not say, I will do right, 
or ' duty,' if that will take all sorrow out of life ? 
That would be bargaining with right, with duty." 
"No, no, I would not do that." " But now, put 
God in the place of right or duty. Have you not 
been unconsciously trying to bargain with God ? 
Have you not said, I will serve you, O God, if you 
will take away the fear of death. Whereas you 
ought to have said, I will serve you, come what 
may, for that is right." 

"Stop! I see it all," said the man. And his 
atheism and doubts were gone. And with this 
new belief, the fear of death fled. 

2. THE DEBASED AND VICIOUS. 

Of the ministry of Jesus, it is said, "Then 
drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners 
for to hear him." Luke xv. i. See also Matt. ix. 
10. The gospel has a certain attractiveness to 
those really steeped in sin. They know that 
they are on the wrong road; on the way to de- 
struction. Some of them — perhaps all of them 
would like to escape from the sure consequences 
of their dreadful sins. 

They have given way to appetites, to passions, 
to drink, to sensual sins, to savage vices so long, 
that they have little disposition, and no power to 
resist the bad habits. They have rational inter- 
vals — not very long, nor strong as the life goes 
on, when the better self struggles to assert itself. 



3TETH0DS OF WORK. 107 

There are lucid moments, in their insanity of sin; 
God's light flashed in upon the conscience. 
Good resolutions are made — to be broken. They 
will turn — the man says, "I will be manly" — 
the woman says, " I will live worthy of my be- 
ing and my God." But sin is strong. Help is 
not sought. The soul continues wallowing in 
filth and sin. 

THE HELPING HAND. 

A godly heart and a helping hand are needed 
to reach them. The loving call of grace, the 
message of hope for the lost, through the suffer- 
ing Son of God, are the voices that they may 
hear. They are conscious of being despised by 
the respectable. They even despise themselves. 
They have lost their self-respect. They have 
tried to reform and failed. The world refuses 
to give them a chance: it spurns them, kicks 
them out of its " decent" society. Their com- 
rades in sin laugh at them, and deride them 
for getting " snubbed." Hopeless, they sink to 
a lower level in sin. 

These outcasts of society — dissolute, debauched 
men, tempted, seduced, fallen women, hardened, 
emboldened in vice, filthy of conversation, be- 
sotted in evil, still have souls. The Son of God 
died even for them, though you may not always 
think so. 

The tender call of grace may reach their ears 
and touch their hearts. You do not need to dwell 
on their sinful lives. They know that side. Tell 



108 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

them of the love of God that would reach to 
them, of the heart of God that yearns over them, 
the Spirit of God that would win them to better 
things, the power of God that is ready at their 
call to help them, of the pardon of God through 
Christ Jesus that is ready to wipe out the past, 
and forget it forever. 

Read the narratives of wonderful conversions 
through the work of the Salvation Army and the 
Volunteers. Study what the Rescue Missions 
have done in our great cities among the fallen 
women. What a splendid exhibition of the 
Christlike spirit of modern Christianity is shown 
in these and like mission "settlements," and 
loving work in the very centres of the worst of 
the sin-festering sections of our great cities. It 
is hand to hand work; nay closer than that, it is 
face to face and heart to heart love. It is bring- 
ing the great, warm Christ-heart into this seeth- 
ing mass of human corruption to cleanse, purify 
and uplift each member, awakening self-respect, 
then reverence for God, love for man — love for 
the Saviour. It is bringing the poor, sin-crazed 
being out of the tombs, the grim dwellings of the 
dead, and putting him in a right mind, giving hope 
for despair, clothes for rags, pardon and purity 
for besotted sin, manliness for meanness, a sense 
of righteousness for wretchedness, faith for 
fierceness, a home and -love here and a hope of 
heaven in place of being a wanderer here, and an 
outcast forever. 






METHODS OF WORK. 109 

The Sunday Breakfast Association of Phila- 
delphia reports that it reached 134,231 persons in 
one year, and that 7,543 of that number ex- 
pressed a desire for a better life, and a determi- 
nation to get away from their evil surroundings 
so as to lead good and true lives in Jesus Christ, 
before God and men. In another year, out of 
124,894 who attended its services, 8,309 went 
forward for prayer, and desired to find the new 
life in Christ 

3. THE WORKING CLASSES. 

These form the great middle portion, the 
"masses" in every community. It has been said 
and resaid, and has been dinned into our ears 
until we are weary of it; "The masses neglect 
the church." Wherever that is true, one of two 
other things is true: Either the church neglected 
the "masses," or worse still, did not want them. 

These "masses" do not want to be patronized. 
They are "not objects of charity." They do 
long for sympathy, for comradeship. The so- 
cial instincts are strong in them. They toil 
hard. They struggle to gain and keep their 
places in the workshop, factory, store, or on the 
farm. The strain at work is severe and often 
long each day. When that is over they want 
and need relaxation. Like the bow pulled to the 
utmost springs to the opposite extreme when let 
loose, so they seek frolic, fun, jollity, play, to 
rest muscle and mind. 



110 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 
NEED RELAXATION. 

The working classes have been trained to work. 
They were taught how to do some particular 
trade with skill; how to sell goods with consum- 
mate tact, how to accomplish the most and the 
best within a given time. Days and months 
and often years are spent in gaining this knowl- 
edge. Great institutions have been founded, and 
funded with lavish hand for this end. Immense 
sums have been given to erect suitable homes for 
these children of toil. But they have never been 
taught how to have proper and healthful play, 
amusements, and relaxation. 

IS THE CHURCH A CLUB? 

The working classes are the most sensible, and 
the easiest to reach, if you go at it in the right 
way. To many of them the church is just what 
the splendid clubhouse is to the ordinary person, 
a place for the privileged class. He reads over 
the door, "Common people not wanted." The 
notice is not there in print, of course. It is plainly 
read in the air of the congregation, inside and 
outside. The workingman would as soon enter 
the Union League Club as a church in a fashion- 
able quarter. You say this is a wrong idea on 
his part. But how did he get that wrong idea ? 
It is surely not a fiction of his brain. It was not 
hatched out of an empty shell. The masses of 
work people are both sensible and sensitive; 
they do not go where they are not wanted. 



METHODS OF WORK. Ill 

THE BIRMINGHAM EXPERIMENT. 

From ten or eleven years of experience in suc- 
cessfully reaching the working classes of Bir- 
mingham, Eng., the Rev. Charles Leach says of the 
secret of his success: ''First and foremost I 
had something to tell the people." And that 
something was out of his own experience of the 
compassionate love and tenderness of God to- 
ward the sinner, and his grief over the wanderer, 
and the open arms with which God would wel- 
come his return. He was not ashamed to catch 
them with what was of interest. 

The subject of his first address was "Two 
Hours in the Borough Jail." He described what 
he actually saw there: their cell, their bed, the 
food they ate. When he described their food, 
he took from his pocket a six ounce loaf allowed 
each person, and held it up by a string pointing 
to it. "There it is — a meal for a man. Look at 
it. This three times a day, with hard labor, and 
the soft side of a board for a bed." 

That loaf was an object lesson that was talked 
about in the shops next day. It advertised his 
lectures, arid filled his house. But from prisons, 
he passed on to speak of "Prepared places," in 
heaven, and of Christ who had gone above to 
prepare them. Then followed the next week a 
lecture describing "Two Hours in a Madhouse," 
and so on for ten years. 

The " non-churchgoing" work-people crowded 
the large public hall of Birmingham seating 3,000 



112 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

persons, the mayor granting it, when the au- 
dience became too large for Mr. Leach's chapel. 

His service was extremely plain and simple; 
no band of music, no cornet, organ, nor fiddle — 
only a tuning-fork. Here was no choir of pro- 
fessional singers, not even a good soloist. The 
audience sang the familiar hymns and tunes: 

" Rock of ages, cleft for me." 

" Just as I am without one plea." 

" I lay my sins on Jesus." 

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," 

and similar sacred songs. This was followed by 
prayer, a second hymn, a short Scripture reading, 
with brief explanatory remarks, and a third 
hymn. Then the address rigidly kept within 
half an hour, another hymn and benediction. 

This sincere effort to reach the masses, not 
only reached them in the hall, for which they 
cheerfully contributed enough to pay all the ex- 
penses, but it filled the chapel at his regular 
services, which before had been nearly empty, 
increased the membership forty per cent., closed 
many shops on the Sabbath, turned hundreds of 
drinking men into sober, godly husbands, and 
brought peace, plenty, and purity into a multitude 
of homes, that before had been full of sin, want, 
and misery. 

THE ONE NEXT YOU. 

The busy man or woman may not be able nor 
be called to do this kind of work in public as- 



METHODS OF WORK, 113 

semblies. But each may do it, day by day, in 
the circle where God has appointed the service. 
Seek the one next to you. Many years ago a 
bright young business man was in his store at 
Bangor, Maine. He was moral, upright, a clean 
young man, but he cared not for Sunday, for 
worship, nor personal religion. One week day 
morning a tall, blunt speaking man entered the 
store, and rather abruptly called out, "I came to 
tell you of a good trade. The Master offers you 
to-day, the pearl of great price. Will you buy 
it ? I will call for your answer in two weeks. 
Good-morning. " And he was gone. The young 
man Jooked after the messenger, counting him as 
others did an eccentric person. But that " offer " 
rang in the young man's ears. He could not 
shake off the impression. It clung to him until 
it brought him to confess Christ, and to give his 
life to Christian service. Twenty-five years of 
the best of his days he labored for the Master in the 
American Sunday-school Union, and for nearly 
forty years was an esteemed officer in a promi- 
nent church of Philadelphia. It was the personal 
word, the " offer" of salvation, that came unex- 
pectedly to him when alone in the Bangor store 
that turned his whole life. 

JOHN B. GOUGH. 

It is the friendly hand of a busy worker, with a 
loving heart that gave courage and hope to a de- 
spairing soul, and was the instrument in the hand 



114 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

of God, of saving John B. Gough for that mag- 
nificent lifelong battle which he so eloquently 
waged against rum and the drink habit. 

A Christian worker was speaking to his son, 
on personal religion, while the two were near 
where a poor costermonger, "Bill Sykes" was 
dying. "Give him that little bit," said the cos- 
termonger. "What bit?" asked the worker. 
"That little bit about Christ taking my place 
and how he had my punishment for me. That's 
the bit." It was sound advice. 

DR. PRIME'S CALL. 

Dr. S. 1. Prime tells of calling upon a young 
woman at her request. He had never seen her, 
and scarcely knew how to speak to her soul. 
But while waiting for her to appear, he picked 
up a Bible from the table and found a leaf turned 
down at the text: " Be not afraid: only believe." 
When the woman entered the room, he asked, 
"Who turned that leaf ?" She replied, with deep 
feeling, "My dying mother." "Have you be- 
lieved ? " " No." ' ' Why not ? " " How can I, 
when I do not ?" " Why did your mother turn 
down this leaf?" "That I might read and obey 
these words." "These then are her words for 
you, her path for her dear daughter to walk in, 
when she was dead and gone. Now will you 
walk in it?" After a pause, trembling, she an- 
swered, "I will." " Will what?" he asked. "I 
will not be afraid, and will believe." The two 



METHODS OF WORK. 115 

fell on their knees and Dr. Prime prayed for the 
young friend fervently. She arose with joy in 
her countenance, and ever after was found re- 
joicing in Christ her Saviour. 

WORKING CLASSES AND THE SALOON. 

The great working class will be where they 
are heartily and sincerely wanted. The saloon 
wants them. It makes everything bright and at- 
tractive for them from the outside. It sends 
many a comrade's call after them. The gam- 
bling shop wants them. It makes things allur- 
ing for them. There are handsome rooms, cozy 
chairs, good music, jolly company awaiting them 
in the house of pleasure. 

Sometimes, at midnight of a blustering cold 
night, the saloon keeper may say, " It is time to 
lock up; you will be wanted elsewhere." Re- 
member that word: when you see the open door 
of the saloon, answer, u lam wanted elsewhere." 
You are wanted in your own little home. You 
are wanted at the savings bank, and at the 
building association. You are wanted at the 
house of God. Christ Jesus, the carpenter's son, 
your Best Friend, wants to meet you. He wants 
to be a Brother to you; a Companion in your 
poverty and toil, a Saviour in the time of temp- 
tation and sin, a blessed Comforter in every sor- 
row, and to give you the joys of eternal life and 
rest, when toiling here is ended. Will you hear 
him ? 



116 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

4. THE INTELLECTUAL AND WEALTHY CLASSES. 

Some one has rather bluntly said, "The heathen 
in brown stone palaces need the gospel, as badly 
as those in the brown hovels.'' Sir Isaac Newton 
was once reproved by the skeptical Halley for 
believing in religion. And Halley boldly avowed 
his skepticism. "Sir," replied the venerable 
scholar, "you have never studied these subjects, 
and I have. Do not disgrace yourself as a philos- 
opher by presuming to judge, on questions you 
have never examined. " Halley felt compelled to 
admit that he had not examined tho'se matters. 

These classes are not easy to reach. They are 
generally engrossed about other things. Life goes 
on comparatively smooth with them. Sometimes, 
trouble and sorrow visit their homes, and then 
they feel the need of comfort which neither 
wealth nor learning can offer. The intellectual 
person is often quite ignorant of the Scriptures. 
Gibbon confessed incidentally that all he had 
carefully read of the Bible was the Gospel of John 
and one chapter of Luke. Hume once said that 
he had never read even the New Testament with 
attention, and never read the Bible after he had 
grown to manhood. 

SWIRL OF SOCIETY AND BUSINESS. 

V So the wealthy, the well-to-do have a busy 
round of duties, of pleasures and of attentions, 
and no time for religion. Why you don't know 
half the round of engagements a "society " per- 



METHODS OF WORK. 117 

son has daily. There is the ride, the party call, 
the matinee, the club, the whist-party, the din- 
ner, the theatre, and no end of private engage- 
ments. 

In the rush and swirl of a great business, it is no 
better. For from early morning until near mid- 
night, the thousand and one schemes for expan- 
sion, for bargains here, and for preventing losses 
there, crowd upon the man of business, until his 
brain reels, and he yields to sleep often from 
complete exhaustion. 

To the last he is pulling down, to build larger 
fortunes for this world. How can he give time 
to the things of the world to come ? 

But you must watch your opportunity. Study 
the best way to impress the rich for this world, 
bankrupt in faith. Do not "bore" business per- 
sons. If you think of a word for them, speak it 
in a manly, business way, and leave that with 
your prayer to do its work. Do not give them 
the impression that you regard them as the worst 
sinners in the world. They may be so, but you are 
to look at the worth of the soul, and try to win 
them by love. You may let them see that God is 
no respecter of persons. 

A TIMELY WORD. 

Send them some brief, interesting gospel note. 
In a great city, there was a man of wealth given 
to sports. He did not care for church nor re- 
ligion. One day, he did not feel like going out, 



118 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

and asked a young lady, a near relative, for some- 
thing to amuse himself. She was a Christian, 
and had long waited for some fitting time to 
speak to him, but it came not. So she casually 
handed him a book, saying, "I don't know as 
this will interest you, but suppose you look at 
it." The book was "The Story of the Gospel." 
He sat down to read it. He read on and on. 
The story touched his heart. He became an 
earnest Christian. 

An intelligent woman of society relating her 
experience, says, " I long wanted some person to 
tell me about religion, and sought the society of 
Christian people for this purpose, but nobody 
spoke to me. I was sadly disappointed." There 
are hundreds who have had a similar experience, 
and have said in bitterness of heart, of Chris- 
tians, "No man cared for my soul." 

THE COLLEGE STUDENT. 

In a college of Massachusetts, there was a 
revival, but many of the young women pupils 
avoided the meetings with a curling lip, and scorn- 
ful look. Among them was one " Helen B ," 

especially unwilling to hear a word or to attend 
the meetings. So a band of her mates agreed to 
pray for her. While they were praying she en- 
tered the room. They sang, 

" I was a wandering sheep," 

and she the proud wayward child broke down 
and returned in joy to the good Shepherd. 



METHODS OF WORK. 119 

The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jo- 
seph were wealthy and godly, so were David, 
Job, Boaz, Joseph of Arimathea, Jairus, Cornelius, 
the treasurer of Ethiopia, Sergius Paulus, and 
many others. 

Not a few learned are mentioned in Scripture 
as using their learning in God's service. Nico- 
demus the teacher sought Jesus "a great com- 
pany of the priests (learned in religion and law) 
were obedient to the faith." Acts vi. 7. Paul 
was trained in the best schools of his time. 

THE PLEASURE SEEKER. 

The lover of pleasure too may be reached by 
personal work and love. E. Payson Hammond 
tells of this instance brought to his notice by 
John Neal of Portland. A young woman seemed 
to be undecided. Mr. Neal spoke to her. She 
answered, " But, I shall never be a Christian." 
Mr. Neal tried to present the love of the Saviour 
to her in earnest, tender terms. " But, Jesus will 
never accept me," was her answer. "Why He 
accepted Saul." " Yes, but Saul thought he was 
doing God service; I knew I was not. I was in- 
terested some three years ago, but I danced all 
night after it, and felt no more concern. I 
ridiculed religion, and came only to make sport 
of them. I can never be a Christian." Thus 
she went on. For days she was prayed for 
and with. One night, unable to sleep, she re- 
called this verse, "If we confess our sins, he is 



120 HANDY HELPS FOE BrSY WORKERS. 

faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." She re- 
solved to trust Christ: she found comfort and 
peace. 

George J. Romanes, the noted naturalist, for 
many years an agnostic and unbeliever, after a 
long struggle came out frankly with this con- 
fession: "Now I have come to see that faith, 
religious faith, is intellectually justifiable — the 
natural hypothesis of a pure heart." 

Tennyson's sweetest songs are of the infinite 
and the immortal life. His last prayer-poem 
breathed this: 

" "May I see my Pilot face to face, when I have crossed the 
bar." 

Alex. J. Harrison, Halifax. Eng., relates how he 
found a man of great intelligence who said he 
could not believe many things in the Bible. He 
proposed to him to get two copies of the New 
Testament, that he should take one copy and be- 
ginning with the gospels, read very slowly and 
thoughtfully, deliberately striking out with a 
pencil every passage he could not honestly ac- 
cept, and acquaint him with the result. The 
man followed out the suggestion, and as Mr. 
Harrison expected, the result of his first reading 
was that he had rejected the physically super- 
natural, leaving the morally supernatural alto- 
gether untouched. 

Then he asked the man to take the other copy, 



METHODS OF WORK. 121 

and read in a similar, careful way, noting this 
time all the passages that he could honestly be- 
lieve, and consider this result. 

Then he asked him to compare the two books. 
After meditation the man found that he had re- 
fused to accept the less, while accepting the 
greater facts. He saw that whether or not the 
miracles attested Christ, that Christ attested the 
miracles. He became a believer. 

5. THE NOMINAL CHRISTIAN. 

This is a very large class, with many varieties. 
Hence it is often said, and perhaps truly, that the 
greatest hindrance to the progress of Christianity 
is the inconsistencies or imperfections of pro- 
fessed Christians. 

Many professed disciples are not careful to 
depart from iniquity. When asked to come up 
to a truer life, the excuse is, "I am doing the 
best I can/' In plain English, "I am living as 
near right as I can, therefore I don't need Christ." 
They are simply trusting to their morality, their 
works to save them. The people tried Jesus 
with this question. What shall we do that we 
might work the works of God? The pointed 
answer was, "This is the work of God, that ye 
believe on him whom he hath sent." John vii. 28, 
29. These modern self-righteous people do not 
fully trust Christ for salvation: they trust their 
works, which they imagine are the works of 
God. Read Rom. xii. 1-3, and 1 John ii. 15. 



122 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 
SAVED, NOT BY WORKS. 

Another class says, " Oh, yes. I am trying to 
live a better life." But have you received Jesus ? 
Have you the Holy Spirit? If you have, cease 
your "trying" and trust Christ: "For Christ is 
the end of the law unto righteousness to every 
one that believeth." Rom. x. 4, r. v. Sinners are 
never justified nor saved by "trying." "By grace 
have ye been saved through faith," says Paul to 
the Ephesians. Eph. ii. 8, r. v. " Being justified 
freely by his grace through the redemption that 
is in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 24. Salvation is not 
by works, nor by "trying to be good" : " the free 
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." Rom. vi. 23, r. v. Will you accept 
"eternal life," God's present to you?- That is 
the question for every soul to answer. 

Another class of professors relies upon God's 
goodness. God is too good to condemn me, for 
a few sins. Is it not said "God is love"? 
True, but do you love God ? Jesus declared 
that those who had done ill shall come forth 
"unto the resurrection of judgment." John v. 
29, r. v. 

The same book which says, "God is love," 
also says, "If any man love the world, the love 
of the Father is not in him." 1 John ii. 15; iv. 8, 
16. See also Matt. xxv. 46, and Rev. xxii. 15. 
God's love would lead you to repentance: and to 
forsake sins: not to die in them. Rom. ii. 4; John 
viii. 21. The trouble is that you want to be saved 



METHODS OF WORK. 123 

in your own way. God is willing to save you in 
his way alone. You won't be saved that way: 
"ye will not come to me, that ye may have 
life," said Jesus Christ. John v. 40. So he said 
to the people, " Except ye repent, ye shall all in 
like manner perish." Luke xiii. 3, R. v. 

Another class of professors wants to be saved, 
but they want to enjoy all the worldly pleasures 
possible also. It is not a question of the right or 
the wrong of those pleasures. It is their absorp- 
tion in them. It is pleasure first, Christly service 
second. It is seeking the selfish fun and amuse- 
ment of the world first* the Kingdom of God 
next or later. Give it just enough attention to 
insure me for the next world is what the action 
and lives of many professors seem to say. 

How are these to be brought to a higher level 
of Christian living ? Tell them of the joys of a 
consecrated life. Impress upon them their noble 
privilege. Whoever receives Christ receives the 
right to become a son of God. Think over, re- 
count the riches, the honors, the glories, the 
mansions that belong to the sons of God. 

"Since I have known and believed in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, I have been as happy as an angel," 
said Lady Margaret Hastings to her new sister- 
in-law Lady Huntingdon. This simple testimony 
stirred Lady Huntingdon's soul to its very depths. 
It led her to consecrate herself fully to Christ, 
and gave her an intense lifelong and joyous pas- 
sion for the salvation of souls. 



124 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

II. THE WAYS AND MEANS. 

These are many and often difficult. But diffi- 
culties are good tests of men. Says Sir Robert 
Peel, " He who wrestles with us, strengthens 
our nerves and sharpens our skill." William 
Penn's mottoes are stimulating to the Christian 
worker : ' ' No pain, no palm ; no thorn, no crown ; 
no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown." 

Paul says: " I am become all things to all men, 
that I may. by all means save some." i Cor. ix. 
22, r. v. This is the true spirit of every busy 
worker who would wip souls. Suggestions can 
be made here, along a few lines only; their chief 
value will be to start the mind of the worker to 
think out a hundred better for every one here 
given. 

HOW BEGIN? 

How to begin ? is the great question. If some 
person seeks you on a business matter, you can 
listen; it is all you need to do until the business 
is made clear. But if you are seeking another on 
the most important Christian business; that of 
personal religion, then what? The person may 
be a stranger, or one casually seen in your daily 
occupation. How is the subject to be intro- 
duced ? This is the great obstacle. It is not be- 
cause hundreds of conscientious persons do not 
wish to speak to their irreligious friends, that 
they keep silent. It is rather because they do 
not know how to begin. I am confident that 



METHODS OF WORK. 125 

multitudes of sincere godly persons are silent at 
such times because they fear speaking will give 
offence, and do more harm than good. After all, 
where there is a loving spirit, are not such fears 
usually groundless ? 

A venerable minister wrote to an eloquent 
speaker announced to address a large meeting 
on home evangelization: "Don't give us a lot 
of theories: tell us some facts/' So I purpose to 
note some "facts," showing "ways" of work- 
ing which others have found simple and suc- 
cessful. 

I. THE SILENT MESSAGE. 

The Scripture text, tract, leaflet, and book have 
been happily called the "silent missionaries." 
You may be ever so diffident, yet you can send a 
little pocket or "letter leaflet" containing a gos- 
pel message to one you desire to reach. Send at 
stated intervals, carefully selecting each one, so 
as to adapt it as best you can to the case. 

DR. ALLIBONE IN A STREET CAR. 

S. Austin Allibone, LL. D., gave and sent out 
over a thousand little Scripture text cards, and 
"pocket leaflets," with an earnest gospel appeal, 
every year. He always kept a dozen or more 
different leaflets carefully chosen, placed on a 
shelf in his study near the door. Every caller 
was politely handed one of these as he or she left 
the room. He carried some in his pocket to give 
out by the way, as he had opportunity. One 



126 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

day I entered a street car with him. Soon after, 
a plainly dressed and coarse looking lad took a 
seat near us. Dr. Allibone at once broke off our 
conversation, and moved up beside the lad, ask- 
ing him where he worked ? Where he went to 
Sunday-school ? and where to church ? The lad 
confessed that he went to neither and had tem- 
porary work only. Dr. Allibone spoke a few 
kind words, gave the lad his address, and offered 
him a "pocket leaflet " or card giving "seven 
reasons " for going to church and Sunday-school. 
The lad received the leaflet, and was reading it 
attentively when we left the car. 

This great bibliographer had no patronizing air; 
it was in the simple spirit of the gospel that he 
thus sowed seed by the wayside. And letters of 
thanks often came to him from perfect strangers, 
for his Christian service. One year there were 
ten or twelve wrote, tracing their conversions to 
his incidentally handing them a "card" or a 
" leaflet " with a very brief gospel message on it. 

THE GOSPEL CHAIN. 

You may have heard how Richard Baxter was 
made the beginning of a truly "gospel chain." 

A common peddler sold a copy of Dr. Sibb's 
little work entitled, "The Bruised Reed," to the 
father of Richard Baxter. The reading of this 
work was the means of leading young Baxter to 
accept the Saviour. Richard Baxter wrote 168 
works, among them, "The Saints' Everlasting 



METHODS OF WORK. 127 

Rest." Reading this work led Philip Doddridge 
to consecrate his life to Jesus Christ and his serv- 
ice. After years of earnest work in the ministry 
Doddridge wrote, "The Rise and Progress of 
Religion in the Soul." This book it is said, with 
the influence of Dr. Isaac Milner, was blessed to 
the conversion of William Wilberforce, who had 
been a gay youth at Cambridge. Wilberforce 
afterward wrote the "Practical View of Chris- 
tianity." Reading this volume led to the conver- 
sion of Legh Richmond and Thomas Chalmers. 
The pathetic little narrative of the "Dairyman's 
Daughter" was afterward written by Legh Rich- 
mond, and translated into many languages, and 
has been read by hundreds of thousands, leading 
to the conversion of multitudes of souls. The 
fervent sermons and works of Thomas Chalmers 
turned the attention of some of the most intel- 
lectual minds of Scotland to the truths of Chris- 
tianity and to Christ. His loving words and 
kindly hands placed on the head of a Scotch lad 
gave him a new impulse toward a noble life. 
That same lad afterward came to America, and 
the power of Dr. Chalmers' influence and ex- 
ample led him to consecrate himself to the Mis- 
sion Sunday-school work. This lad became 
John McCullagh "the Sunday-school man of the 
South," who organized a thousand Bible Schools 
in destitute places. Many were brought to con- 
fess Christ through these schools, and churches 
that were formed upon their foundations are still 



123 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS, 

actively spreading the news of salvation in those 
great fields. And this "Gospel Chain," started 
over two hundred and fifty years ago, in that 
little "Silent Messenger," left by an unknown 
peddler in the humble boyhood home of Richard 
Baxter. 

The Lost Quarterly. When one is striving to 
be a winner of souls, the Lord often blesses the 
laborer by the most unexpected conversions. A 
weary member of a Sunday-school in Virginia, 
lost a Union Quarterly on a country road. Not 
long after a stranger passing that way picked it 
up. Attracted by its lithographed cover, he was 
led to examine it. He had never seen such a 
book before and it was a riddle to him. He 
stopped for the night with a member of the 
school from which the " Union Quarterly" came. 
When the stranger showed his newly-found 
treasure, the use of it was explained to him, and 
he was told of the missionary who formed the 
school and supplied it. " Tell that man to come 
over into our parts and organize a school for us," 
said the stranger. 

The missionary found the place, known by the 
unpromising name of " Mudhole." He formed a 
school, securing a leader for it, some miles dis- 
tant. Some time later, on a stormy Sunday the 
missionary again found the little log-house well 
filled, and twelve persons said they had decided 
to accept Christ. That "lost" Quarterly of the 
weary member of a little country mission Sun- 



METHODS OF WORK. 129 

day-school was "lost" that it might be the 
means of saving a dozen " lost" souls in another 
secluded neighborhood beyond the mountain 
ridge. 

THE LOST LESSON LEAF. 

The Rev. Dr. W. P. Paxson related a similar 
incident in his experience. A ranchman was 
herding his cattle on a great plain of Texas, when 
he picked up a small bit of paper. Unrolling it, 
he read some texts of Scripture upon it, — for it 
was a bit of a Union Sunday-school Lesson Leaf 
— which had blown across the plain, — and these 
Bible texts led the rough herdsman to seek for- 
giveness through Jesus Christ. 

Small books like Spurgeon's "Advice to Seek- 
er's," Hodge's "Way of Life," or Brooke's "Way 
Made Plain," have guided hundreds of souls into 
the way of salvation. John Gibson, a fireman in 
Philadelphia, picked up a copy of a small illus- 
trated paper issued by the American Sunday- 
. school Union, and found in it a prayer written by 
Dr. Pond. This led to a marked change in his life, 
and he adopted the prayer to be used at home, 
read the Bible in the engine house, and attended 
church when his duties would permit. He was 
crushed under the ruins of a burning theatre 
when on duty, trying to put out the fire. The 
bit of paper folded containing the prayer was 
found in his pocket after his death. 

Writing kindly letters, or adding a line on the 
subject of religion at the end of a business letter, 



130 HAXDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

or enclosing a neat card with a Scripture text on 
it is often an efficient way of influencing one to 
a better life. 

NEWMAN HALL. 

John Vine Hall speaking of the ordination of 
his son, Newman Hall,, the eminent minister of 
London, says that his early advantages were many, 
but his religion was formal and outward, until a 
letter from his younger sister was used by the 
Holy Spirit to arouse him to see the need of con- 
secrating himself fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

A young boy in a humble home in the South, 
was persuaded to attend a little Union Sunday- 
school w r hich he describes as about as " lively as 
a funeral." In that school he found books 
"fresh" and "juicy" (so he thought them) 
bringing him into a new world of delight, to 
spur him on to Christ, and to get an education. 
That lad entered the ministry and for many years 
filled the pulpit of one of the leading churches in 
Chicago. 

A little tract entitled " The Praying Negro " fell 
into the hands of a physician who was a skeptic. 
He read this story of the poor African, praying 
for heaven's blessings upon her master, who was 
whipping her severely. While restless and suf- 
fering from the punishment, she prayed that her 
master might be forgiven, and saved by the blood 
of Jesus Christ. Such a spirit of forgiveness 
was so unlike human nature, smarting under in- 
justice, that the physician was led to inquire into 






METHODS OF WORK. 131 

Christianity anew, and it ended in his hearty ac- 
ceptance of Christ as his Saviour. 

A woman in the ordinary walks of life in New 
York City is accustomed to distribute copies of 
" Silent Comforters'' or wall rolls with texts of 
Scripture in large print upon them. These are 
placed in the rooms of invalids, the sick, or the 
poor, so that some text can easily be read by any 
one in the room. The lives of many toilers and 
sufferers have thus been sweetened and com- 
forted. Not a few have been led by these silent 
"Words of Healing" to forsake a life of world- 
liness for one of joy in the service of Christ. 

2. UNIVERSITY AND SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS. 

These movements have sprung out of our 
Christian life within the last ten or fifteen years. 
They have translated into life what was a theo- 
retic truth only of Christianity. It is that spirit 
which in a more crude way filled the soul of St. 
Francis and his followers the Franciscans 600 
years ago and before the order was sadly de- 
based by unholy ambitions. As Walter Besant 
puts it, the consecration took these concrete 
forms in the minds of men and women. "Not 
money, but yourselves." It was a Christlike ef- 
fort to uplift the cultured and the uncultured 
classes together. "The note of this new philan- 
thropy is personal service; not money; not a 
check; not a subscription written; not speeches 
on a platform; not tracts; not articles in Re- 



132 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

views; none of the old methods, but personal 
service. 'Not money, but yourselves.' ' 

The learned and refined plunge in among the 
ignorant, and the debased, living with them, that 
together they may rise to a nobler life. Wealth 
and poverty dwell together, share the same con- 
ditions, eat the same plain fare, that both may 
be transformed into the blessed image of the 
same suffering and glorified Christ. 

There are already more than a dozen of such 
"settlements" as Toynbee Hall, Oxford House 
and the like in the great city of London, and 
others in Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow and Edin- 
burgh. The movement has sprung up in Amer- 
ica and we have settlements like the University 
Settlement in New York, the South-end House in 
Boston, the Commons and the Hull House in 
Chicago, the Philadelphia settlement; the move- 
ment having extended already to about twenty 
cities of our country. 

The educated, it may be, wealthy Christian in 
high society, consecrates himself or herself to 
the service of Christ, and to a home among the 
lowest poor, choosing a room in their quarter, 
unpromising and foul without, but plain and 
cleanly within. Then work begins of studying 
the life of the poorest in that quarter, and how to 
get acquainted with them, and their lives, to 
sympathize truly with them, and help them to 
sweeten the life of toil, suffering, sorrow, and 
wretchedness. It is a noble, a Christlike service, 



METHODS- OF WORK. 133 

the same spirit which animates the missionary 
of the cross to carry the gospel to the Fiji Islands, 
the New Hebrides, or the tribes of Central Africa, 
only there is less reputation and glory in pros- 
pect, and more patience, prudence, and piety re- 
quired in the home than in the heathen work. 
See W. Reason's University and Social Settle- 
ments, 1898. 

3. Salvation Army and Volunteers. These are 
agencies distinct from churches, aiming to bring 
"the world to God." They grew out of a Lon- 
don mission led by William Booth in 1878. The 
purpose was to bear the gospel to the sunk and 
sinking classes, the paupers, the homeless, starv- 
ing, extremely poor, and to the vicious and the 
criminal wherever found in city, town or coun- 
try. They adopted the discipline of the army, 
and a uniform carrying a flag of red, yellow and 
blue, the red emblematical of the blood of Christ, 
the yellow of the fire of the Spirit, and the blue 
of purity of heart. They parade the streets with 
drum and tambourine, singing gospel songs. 
They require unquestioning obedience to orders, 
confession of religion, renunciation of the world, 
self-denial, perpetual poverty and local self-sup- 
port. 

The American Volunteers, separated from the 
Salvation Army, and under Ballington Booth and 
his accomplished wife, have modified the plans 
of the old "army" to bring them into closer har- 
mony with the genius of the American govern- 



134 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

ment and to meet American needs. They hold 
meetings in the open air, in tents and halls. 
Both organizations provide for the very poor, in 
many ways, as temporary lodgings, rescue 
homes, refuges, and the like, besides doing a 
vigorous evangelistic work. Outside of the 
church and its mission societies these are prob- 
ably the strongest organized evangelizing agencies 
in the world. 

There are a vast number of independent local 
ways of presenting the gospel through Medical 
and Reformatory missions in our great cities, 
through Magdalen and Rescue homes, for all 
sorts of fallen classes. These are doing a noble 
work for humanity and for Christ. Any Chris- 
tian worker will gain more valuable suggestions 
in respect to practical methods of work by a few 
personal visits to these institutions, than by read- 
ing a whole volume on the subject. And better 
still, the personal contact with the consecrated 
people in them, would give an inspiration that 
would last one during life. 

4. The Gospel Wagon, Cqr and Ship. The 
gospel wagon has often been used with success. 
It is nothing more than a common square boxed 
spring wagon, usually with "Gospel Wagon" 
in large letters upon the sides, and some text of 
Scripture as "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved," or "Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save sinners," also in large 
letters, often in stencil-letters on a strip of muslin 



METHODS OF WORK. 135 

and tacked to the wagon box. Two or more go 
out with it, singing gospel songs, and speaking 
a word to those who draw near. 

Some have had a large railway car fitted up 
with kitchen and beds in one end, and a room 
for service and prayer in the other, getting per- 
mission of various railways to run the car over 
their roads, stopping at small stations sometimes 
for several days to hold a series of gospel meet- 
ings. 

A gospel ship or yacht has also been found 
useful in reaching places on rivers, bays and 
lakes for similar gospel services. The American 
Sunday-school Union had a sailor-missionary 
with his yacht employed for several years, along 
the Atlantic coast from Maine to the Carolinas, 
visiting and preaching to coast dwellers, on iso- 
lated places, who otherwise seldom heard the 
gospel. While some of these ways may seem 
to some to be spectacular and to savor of display, 
still the instances of conversion, narrated by this 
class of workers are often very interesting and 
remarkable, showing that the Lord blesses the 
message thus proclaimed. 

5. The Open Church. A modern idea has taken 
firm root in the best Christian minds, that a church 
building should be used, and be fitted for being 
used for the spread of the gospel, not alone for a 
few hours of Sunday, but on seven days in the 
week. In fact, that it be always open every day 
and every night, for any poor wandering sinner 



136 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

to find refuge at any moment, when hungry, 
heartsick, homeless, friendless, and forsaken he 
might be willing to turn his weary feet that way. 
And this " moment " often comes at night rather 
than by day. 

Nay more, there should be such a force of 
earnest consecrated workers, evangelists of the 
true type, who should ever be on the watch for 
such lost ones. Even as those in the St. Bernard 
Hospice upon the Alps are ever ready to rescue 
the lost traveler, and to send helpers with their 
strong, keen-scented dogs to discover them when 
buried in snow, and to bear them restoratives; 
so ought every church of Jesus Christ to be a 
Spiritual Hospice in its community, with bands 
of workers, organized in relays, if required, to 
seek out and rescue the spiritually lost, the stray- 
ing and the weak around it. This may not require 
great wealth, nor immense money endowments. 
It will call for a blessed consecration to the Mas- 
ter's work. For to maintain such an organization 
demands ministrations more than money; lov- 
ing service rather than long prayers. 

It is making religion in the Church a Christian 
business aiming at soul-saving, and character 
building for God. Here is one of the largest 
fields for the "busy Christian worker," the 
"lay-evangelist/' for every one with a heart to 
work. Some evangelical churches are realizing 
this ideal to a large extent, having every form 
of Christian service from twenty-one to thirty- 



METHODS OF WORK. 137 

five regular exercises during the week, the build- 
ing practically never shut, from one week's end 
to another. These uniformly report larger addi- 
tions from the world, than other churches in their 
communion. 

6. Young Peoples' Societies. The "Christian 
Endeavor " to enlist young people in some form 
of Christian work began in Williston Church, 
Portland, Maine, in 1881. The pastor, Rev. F. E. 
Clark, after a revival, formed the young converts 
into a society for mutual spiritual growth, chiefly 
through a prayer-meeting. The simple plan was 
taken up by others with all the enthusiasm of 
youth, until the movement now counts its ad- 
herents by millions, and it has extended to nearly 
every Christian country on the globe. Their con- 
ventions have been phenomenal in numbers and 
zeal. Its methods are familiar to all, and require 
no detailed description here. 

The King's Daughters, the White Ribbon and 
similar societies auxiliary to gospel work are 
methods which have been and still are effective in 
building up and strengthening religion in the 
communities where they exist. The King's 
Daughters with the "Shut in" society do a noble 
work for the invalid and the disabled class of 
persons, whose life is often one of great physical 
suffering. To them the comfort of the gospel is 
a blessed boon sweetening and bringing sunshine 
into what would otherwise be a life of despond- 
ency and gloom, ending in dark despair. 



138 HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. 

The " White Ribbon" movement stands spe- 
cially to guard the purity of the home, and of the 
individual not alone from open dissipation and 
lewdness, but also from those insinuating and 
secret vices that enfeeble the vital powers, 
weaken the moral sense, destroy self-respect 
and reverence for God, and ruin the soul. 

BROTHERHOODS AND WORK FOR MEN. 

The large proportion of women in churches 
of America has often led worldly people to say, 
" Religion is good for women and children." It 
is not to the credit of the men, that among church 
members there are two women to one man. 
The women ought to be there, and more of 
them; but much more should the men be in the 
church. Why are they not ? In almost any of our 
large cities there are nearly twice as many men's 
•'lodges" as there are churches, and the former 
are usually well attended and well sustained. 
The lodge members recognize and aid one an- 
other in daily life. They cultivate a "fellow- 
feeling." There is a sense of comradeship, of 
mutual helpfulness. So the "lodge" is popular 
with men. 

The Christian organizations ought to have a 
truer, deeper and more loving fellowship, and to 
manifest it to one another. Out of this idea, 
sprang the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, the Brotherhood of 
Andrew and Philip in various other churches, 



METHODS OF WORK. 139 

and the several forms of men's guilds, leagues, 
and King's Sons. 

The Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and that of 
Andrew and Philip are exceedingly 'simple in 
plan, having only two rules, the rule of prayer 
and the rule of service. The rule of prayer is to 
pray daily for the spread of Christ's Kingdom 
among men, and for God's blessing upon the 
labors of the Brotherhood. The rule of service 
is to make an earnest effort each week to bring 
at least one man within the hearing of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ. The spirit of Christian fellow- 
ship and comradeship in the various walks of 
life is to be particularly cherished by all the 
members. 

A blind man was brought to a service in Chi- 
cago Avenue Church and accepted Christ as his 
Saviour. When a call was made for the mem- 
bers to bring in the unconverted, the blind man 
responded, "I can't see any one but I'll feel for 
somebody." The next night he waited in a nar- 
row alley, until he heard footsteps approaching 
him. Then he sprang out and said to the man: 
" Come, I want you to go to meeting with me." 
The startled man had not been to church for 
years. But he went, and was led to Christ. 
The blind man tried again and again: it is said 
he brought three persons in succession who also 
were led to confess Christ. 

7. The Union Bible School. When President 
Harrison was leaving his home for Washington 



140 HANDY HELPS FOB BUSY WOBKEBS. 

his gardener urged him to get a dog to take care 
of the fruit. He responded, "Better set a Sun- 
day-school teacher to take care of the boys/' 

And Dr. James W. Alexander heartily affirmed, 
"There is no Christan effort toward the reforma- 
tion of rural ignorance and metropolitan vice 
which is doing so much as the Sunday-school. 
All our churches are built up by it, and new 
churches are formed. We can use this cheap 
agency long before we can send a missionary or 
gather a congregation." 

By this means you can take the Bible into a 
community with a Baxter, or a Bunyan to illus- 
trate it, and a Meyer, a Ryle, or a Schaff to ex- 
plain it. 

The city is the menace of modern civilization. 
It is the Gibraltar of corrupt rings, the impregna- 
ble castle of political "bosses." But about two- 
thirds of the population of America are still in 
the rural districts and they hold the balance of 
power. So long as these can be kept honest, 
upright, leavened with the gospel, our land is 
safe. 

The Union Bible School has been a bulwark of 
moral strength, a distinct gospel power in the 
land. A single school of this kind may seem 
weak by itself. But when we remember that 
the American Sunday-school Union alone has 
founded about one hundred thousand of these 
schools, planting them over this wide country, 
dotting the western prairie, or over the hills 



METHODS OF WORK. 141 

and in the valleys of the middle and southern 
states, and cheering the settler in the dense for- 
ests or the miner in his camp, is it not clear how 
these humble homes have been kept from swell- 
ing the tide of corruption which has swept over 
the cities ? 

Here is not only the largest, but the most 
hopeful field for the evangelistic and the lay 
worker. 

De Witt Clinton once said, "The Sunday- 
school is one of the great powers by which the 
moral world is to be moved." William Wirt de- 
clared, " Public virtue has no solid basis but in 
religion." And Washington earnestly urged 
statesmen not to depend upon a refined education 
since "reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect that national morality can prevail in the 
exclusion of religious principles." 

The strongest motives, therefore, springing 
from true patriotism, the zeal that is born of the 
broadest philanthropy, and the love that is in- 
spired by the infinite worth of the soul, call for 
ceaseless efforts by every Christian to persuade 
some lost one to believe and be saved. 

The Bible tells us of God and his love; of how 
Christ died for the sinner; of the Holy Spirit giv- 
ing light to the soul; of the blessedness of serv- 
ice below: and of the glory of the redeemed in 
the life to come. 



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VOLUME I. 

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Newton, D.D. Illustrations. 



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No. 8. THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

By a Layman. 
He who can doubt the divine origin of Christianity, after reading 
this little book, must be a very credulous person — much more so 
than he who is forced by logic, facts and history to accept Chris- 
tianity. 

No. 9. HOW TO GET ON. By B. B. Comegys. 

Young men wih be aided by this valuable work. The author's 
experience well fits him to be a guide to others. 

No. 10. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MAN OF THE SOUTH. A 

sketch of the life and labors of the Rev. John McCullagh. 
By the Rev. Joseph H. McCullagh. 
"Every well-written biography of a good man like this is an 
inspiration to others." — Christian Work. 

No. 11. CATACOMBS OF ROME. Giving the most important 
and interesting facts touching the subterranean cemeteries 
of the ancient city of Rome. Illustrations. 

No. 12. WEE DAVIE. By Rev. Norman Macl*eod, D.D. Illus- 
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This story is a gem. It shows the naturalness of Dr. Macleod's 
Style and discloses the secret of his popularity among all classes. 



VOLUME II. 

No. 13 (April 98). FOUNDATION STONES, By ReV. John Haix, 

D.D. 

Each chapter uncovers a foundation stone, upon which the 

strongest character-building may be reared. While intended for 

the young, wholesome lessons may be found in it for older persons. 

No. 14 (May). EXCUSE ME. By William C Stiles. 

The usual excuses which persons make when urged to begin a 
Christian jifeare here handled with remarkable force, incisiveness 
and spiritual earnestness. 

No. 15 (June). ADVICE FOR SEEKERS. By C. H. Spurgeon. 

In these short addresses the usual difficulties attending entrance 
upon the Christian life are handled with the practical wisdom and 
spiritual power so characteristic of the great London preacher. 



No. 16 (July) FRIENDS AND FOES OF YOUTH. By Chables 
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Counsel and warnings, wise, sympathetic and genial, from a 
writer that has regularly addressed the largest audiences of men in 
America. An enthusiastic Y. M. C. A. worker, and one of Philadel- 
phia's most popular clergymen. 

No. 17 (Aug.). WORD OF LIFE. By W. B. Mackenzie. 

The author, having grasped the Word of Life, here tries to hold 
it forth to warn or encourage, as their needs require, those who 
have not accepted Christ as their Saviour, guide and friend. 

No. 18 (Sept). COUNSEL FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS. By 

C. H. Spurgeon. 
Ways and methods gathered out of a life of long and successful 
experience as a Christian worker. There are words here with 
power to awaken the slothful to a life of Christian effort, and to 
inflame the zeal of the earnest worker. 

No. 19 (Oct.). HISTORICAL TALES FOR YOUNG PROTESTANTS. 

A hook of thrilling interest — to warn of the soul -destroying 
errors, and to establish one more firmly in those great doctrines in 
the defence of which many suffered and died. 

No. 20 (Nov.) . CHEER FOR DAILY LIFE. By C. H. Spttrgeon. 

Spurgeon's was the wisdom which comes from the winning of 
souls, and building them up in the Christian life. The consolations 
of the Gospel for all the trials of life are presented with his 
accustomed power and attractiveness. 

No. 21 (Dec ). STEPHEN GRATTAN'S FAITH. By Margaret 
Murray Robertson, author of '* Christie, or the Way 
Home.'* 
"The hero of this story is a reformed drunkard. A man of 

humble position, unlettered and unlearned Yet, with a keen sense 

of the great recovery of himself, with faith and works strives to 

save others from the drunkards doom." 

No. 22 (Jan. '99). HANDY HELPS FOR BUSY WORKERS. By 

Edwin W. Rice, D.D. 
For every Christian who is striving to win souls to Christ. Sug- 
gesting best plans of work, with short notes of some of the results 
that have been attained from earnest effort. 

THE HEAVENLY CITY. 

What we may know of it. — How to reach it. — Its in- 
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glory of the place. — Recognition of friends. 
THE CELESTIAL RAILROAD. By Nat'l Hawthorne. 

This visit is told in Hawthorne's graphic and pointed 
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No. 24 (Mar.) UNION WITH CHRIST. By S. B. Schieffelin. 

The writer aims to show that Christ is a Divine Saviour, and that 
by our union with Him we are saved. 

Other volumes in preparation. 



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